James Robertson
Appointed by President William J. Clinton in 1994 and confirmed by voice vote, James Robertson was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. He earned a law degree from George Washington University Law School in 1965. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Lived
- 1938–2019
- Appointed by
- William J. Clinton, 1994
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- Princeton 1959 · George Washington Law School 1965
- Succeeded
- George Hughes Revercomb
- Succeeded by
- Robert Leon Wilkins
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | District of Columbia succeeded George Hughes Revercomb | 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
| Princeton University | B.A. | 1959 |
| George Washington University Law School | LL.B. | 1965 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Robertson was assigned 2,124 district-court cases (1986–2010). Median time from filing to termination: 286 days across 2,119 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.
On appeal
Of 77 of Robertson’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 61 were affirmed, 9 reversed or vacated, and 7 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, Robertson authored 423 published opinions for the court (1995–2010). Most cited: Cooke-Seals v. District of Columbia (56 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Cooke-Seals v. District of Columbia | 973 F. Supp. 184 | 56 |
| 2007 | Fields v. Office of Johnson | 520 F. Supp. 2d 101 | 44 |
| 1997 | Smith v. Dalton | 971 F. Supp. 1 | 44 |
| 1995 | Crosson v. Shalala | 907 F. Supp. 1 | 38 |
| 2009 | Washington v. Geren | 675 F. Supp. 2d 26 | 35 |
| 2008 | ICM Registry, LLC v. U.S. Department of Commerce | 538 F. Supp. 2d 130 | 35 |
| 2002 | Tomac v. Norton | 193 F. Supp. 2d 182 | 34 |
| 2000 | Simms v. U.S. Government Printing Office | 87 F. Supp. 2d 7 | 31 |
| 2009 | Kline v. Springer | 602 F. Supp. 2d 234 | 30 |
| 2005 | Ibrahim v. Titan Corp. | 391 F. Supp. 2d 10 | 28 |
| 2000 | Williams v. Munoz | 106 F. Supp. 2d 40 | 28 |
| 1997 | Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides v. Browner | 965 F. Supp. 59 | 25 |
| 2010 | Estate of Parsons v. Palestinian Authority | 715 F. Supp. 2d 27 | 24 |
| 2005 | Chase v. AIMCO Properties, L.P. | 374 F. Supp. 2d 196 | 23 |
| 1998 | Rothschild v. Department of Energy | 6 F. Supp. 2d 38 | 23 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 423 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 Robertson?
- President William J. Clinton appointed James Robertson to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in 1994.
- Was James Robertson appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- James Robertson 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 Robertson's confirmation vote?
- James Robertson was confirmed by voice vote on October 7, 1994. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court was James Robertson on?
- James Robertson was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
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 Columbia (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.
15 years on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).