Eastern District of Arkansas / Appointed 1995 / Served to 2014

James Maxwell Moody

Judge, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas

Appointed by President William J. Clinton in 1995 and confirmed by voice vote, James Maxwell Moody was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas. He earned a law degree from University of Arkansas School of Law in 1964. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Born
1940 · age 86
Appointed by
William J. Clinton, 1995
Confirmed
by voice vote
Education
University of Arkansas 1962 · University of Arkansas Law 1964
Succeeded
Henry Woods

Federal judicial service

YearCourtAppointed byVote
1995Eastern District of Arkansas
succeeded Henry Woods
Clinton (D)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

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Moody was assigned 3,378 district-court cases (1994–2013). Median time from filing to termination: 260 days across 3,376 closed cases.

Prisoner & habeas34%
Civil rights22%
Contract8%
Real property8%
Personal-injury torts8%
Social Security7%
Other13%

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.

On appeal

Of 283 of Moody’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 247 were affirmed, 21 reversed or vacated, and 15 affirmed in part and reversed in part. This is a historical count of appellate outcomes for cases we could match, not a judgment of the judge, and not a complete record. How we count.

In our data, Moody authored 19 published opinions for the court (1996–2010). Most cited: Concord Boat Corp. v. Brunswick Corp. (12 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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

Showing the 15 most-cited of 19 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 Maxwell Moody?
President William J. Clinton appointed James Maxwell Moody to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas in 1995.
Was James Maxwell Moody appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
James Maxwell Moody was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was James Maxwell Moody's confirmation vote?
James Maxwell Moody was confirmed by voice vote on August 11, 1995. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court was James Maxwell Moody on?
James Maxwell Moody was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas.

Sources

Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

See something wrong? Report an error. Fixes are logged in the corrections log.

18 years on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).