James Earl Major

Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit

Appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1937 and confirmed by voice vote, James Earl Major was a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. He previously served on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois. Opinions & record ↓ Sources ↓

Lived

1887–1972

Appointed by

Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1937

Confirmed

by voice vote

Succeeded

Louis FitzHenry

Succeeded by

John Simpson Hastings

Federal judicial service

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

Judicial Record

In our data, Major authored 3 published opinions for the court (1934–1936). Most cited: In Re Borgelt (17 citations).

Published, precedential opinions from the CourtListener corpus. Counts and rankings are objective and recomputable: how we count. We describe the record, not the judge.

Selected opinions

Showing the 3 most-cited of 3 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 Earl Major?

President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed James Earl Major to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in 1937.

Was James Earl Major appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?

James Earl Major was appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.

What was James Earl Major's confirmation vote?

James Earl Major was confirmed by voice vote on March 17, 1937. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.

Which court was James Earl Major on?

James Earl Major was a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

34 years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).