James Martin Fitzgerald
Appointed by President Gerald Ford in 1974 and confirmed by voice vote, James Martin Fitzgerald was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska. He earned a law degree from Willamette University College of Law in 1951. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Lived
- 1920–2011
- Appointed by
- Gerald Ford, 1974
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- Willamette 1950 · Willamette College of Law 1951
- Succeeded
- Raymond Eugene Plummer
- Succeeded by
- James Keith Singleton Jr.
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1974 | District of Alaska succeeded Raymond Eugene Plummer | Ford (R) | Voice vote |
Party letters show the appointing president’s party, not the judge’s own. A voice vote means the chamber approved aloud. No senator-by-senator tally is recorded.
Confirmation vote
Voice vote
The Senate approved this confirmation aloud, with no senator-by-senator tally recorded. Recorded roll-call votes begin in 1989.
Education
| Willamette University | B.A. | 1950 |
| Willamette University College of Law | LL.B. | 1951 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Fitzgerald was assigned 365 district-court cases (1975–2004). Median time from filing to termination: 316 days across 365 closed cases.
Case assignment is from CourtListener’s PACER-derived docket records: a partial sample, not a complete caseload, reflecting the judge last assigned each case. How we count.
In our data, Fitzgerald authored 36 published opinions for the court (1977–1987). Most cited: Allstate Insurance v. Roelfs (58 citations).
A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included. Counts and rankings are objective and recomputable: how we count. We describe the record, not the judge.
Recent & notable rulings
| Year | Case | Citation | Cited |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 | Allstate Insurance v. Roelfs | 698 F. Supp. 815 | 58 |
| 1977 | United States v. Atlantic Richfield Co. | 435 F. Supp. 1009 | 28 |
| 1979 | Gay v. Williams | 486 F. Supp. 12 | 27 |
| 1983 | Village of False Pass v. Watt | 565 F. Supp. 1123 | 25 |
| 1982 | Alsop v. Alaska, Commissioner of Revenue for the Public Employees Retirement Fund (In Re Alsop) | 22 B.R. 1017 | 24 |
| 1978 | Cape Fox Corp. v. United States | 456 F. Supp. 784 | 23 |
| 1980 | United States v. Kaiyo Maru Number 53 | 503 F. Supp. 1075 | 20 |
| 1985 | Lee v. United States | 629 F. Supp. 721 | 19 |
| 1982 | Municipality of Anchorage v. Hitachi Cable, Ltd. | 547 F. Supp. 633 | 19 |
| 1981 | Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. v. Vessel Bay Ridge | 509 F. Supp. 1115 | 19 |
| 1982 | Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope v. United States | 548 F. Supp. 182 | 16 |
| 1986 | United States v. Campbell | 627 F. Supp. 320 | 14 |
| 1981 | Osamu Mishima v. United States | 507 F. Supp. 131 | 14 |
| 1981 | In Re the Complaint of Hokkaido Fisheries Co. | 506 F. Supp. 631 | 13 |
| 1986 | Aleknagik Natives, Ltd. v. United States | 635 F. Supp. 1477 | 10 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 36 authored opinions in our data. “Cited” is inbound citations across the CourtListener corpus. Case links open the ruling’s full text (CourtListener) or its page here; read the methodology and verify against the primary source.
Questions & answers
- Who appointed James Martin Fitzgerald?
- President Gerald Ford appointed James Martin Fitzgerald to the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska in 1974.
- Was James Martin Fitzgerald appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- James Martin Fitzgerald was appointed by President Gerald Ford, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was James Martin Fitzgerald's confirmation vote?
- James Martin Fitzgerald was confirmed by voice vote on December 18, 1974. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court was James Martin Fitzgerald on?
- James Martin Fitzgerald was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska.
Sources
Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.
- FJC Biographical Directory
- Wikidata
- Portrait: United States District Court for the District of Alaska (Public domain), via Wikimedia Commons
- CourtListener bulk data (Free Law Project): authored opinions & citation counts
How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources
See something wrong? Report an error. Fixes are logged in the corrections log.
36 years on the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).