Middle District of Pennsylvania / Appointed 1998 / Served to 2020

James Martin Munley

Judge, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania

Appointed by President William J. Clinton in 1998 and confirmed by voice vote, James Martin Munley was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. He earned a law degree from Temple University School of Law (now James E. Beasley School of Law) in 1963. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Lived
1936–2020
Appointed by
William J. Clinton, 1998
Confirmed
by voice vote
Education
University of Scranton 1958 · Temple Law (now James E. Beasley School of Law) 1963

Federal judicial service

YearCourtAppointed byVote
1998Middle District of PennsylvaniaClinton (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, Munley was assigned 4,649 district-court cases (1990–2026). Median time from filing to termination: 157 days across 4,161 closed cases.

Prisoner & habeas28%
Other civil matters15%
Civil rights11%
Contract11%
Personal-injury torts8%
Real property7%
Other20%

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 293 of Munley’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 260 were affirmed, 23 reversed or vacated, and 10 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, Munley authored 67 published opinions for the court (1999–2011). Most cited: Rieder v. Apfel (226 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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

YearCaseCitationCited
2000Rieder v. Apfel115 F. Supp. 2d 496226
2008Merring v. City of Carbondale, Pennsylvania558 F. Supp. 2d 54052
2007Stankowski v. Farley487 F. Supp. 2d 54338
2010Kropa v. Cabot Oil & Gas Corp.716 F. Supp. 2d 37529
2009Shumate v. Twin Tier Hospitality, LLC655 F. Supp. 2d 52127
2006Moeller v. Bradford County444 F. Supp. 2d 31614
2003Dennison v. Pennsylvania Department of Corrections268 F. Supp. 2d 38714
2005American States Insurance v. Component Technologies, Inc.420 F. Supp. 2d 37313
2009Strickland v. Mahoning Township647 F. Supp. 2d 42212
2004Neumeyer v. Beard301 F. Supp. 2d 34912
2006Diamond Triumph Auto Glass, Inc. v. Safelite Glass Corp.441 F. Supp. 2d 69511
2003Stone v. Disability Management Services, Inc.288 F. Supp. 2d 68411
2010Shultz v. Carlisle Police Department706 F. Supp. 2d 61310
2000Kristi H. Ex Rel. Virginia H. v. Tri-Valley School District107 F. Supp. 2d 62810
2006Colon v. Colonial Intermediate Unit 20443 F. Supp. 2d 6599

Showing the 15 most-cited of 67 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 Munley?
President William J. Clinton appointed James Martin Munley to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania in 1998.
Was James Martin Munley appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
James Martin Munley 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 Martin Munley's confirmation vote?
James Martin Munley was confirmed by voice vote on October 21, 1998. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court was James Martin Munley on?
James Martin Munley was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.

Sources

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

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

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