James Block Zagel
Appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1987 and confirmed by voice vote, James Block Zagel was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. He earned a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1965. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Lived
- 1941–2023
- Appointed by
- Ronald Reagan, 1987
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- University of Chicago 1962 · Harvard Law School 1965
- Succeeded
- Frank James McGarr
- Succeeded by
- Steven Charles Seeger
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 | Northern District of Illinois succeeded Frank James McGarr | Reagan (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
| University of Chicago | B.A. | 1962 |
| University of Chicago | M.A. | 1962 |
| Harvard Law School | J.D. | 1965 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Zagel was assigned 7,813 district-court cases (1977–2016). Median time from filing to termination: 230 days across 7,810 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 165 of Zagel’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 118 were affirmed, 35 reversed or vacated, and 12 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, Zagel authored 174 published opinions for the court (1987–2011). Most cited: Conditioned Ocular Enhancement, Inc. v. Bonaventura (44 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Conditioned Ocular Enhancement, Inc. v. Bonaventura | 458 F. Supp. 2d 704 | 44 |
| 1989 | In Re Elias | 98 B.R. 332 | 42 |
| 1987 | Fellhauer v. City of Geneva | 673 F. Supp. 1445 | 40 |
| 1988 | Brown v. Keystone Consolidated Industries, Inc. | 680 F. Supp. 1212 | 32 |
| 1994 | Piech v. Arthur Andersen & Co., SC | 841 F. Supp. 825 | 25 |
| 1995 | Grove Fresh Distributors, Inc. v. John Labatt Ltd. | 888 F. Supp. 1427 | 23 |
| 1993 | Gowan v. Lefkas General Partners No. 1017 (In Re Lefkas General Partners No. 1017) | 153 B.R. 804 | 21 |
| 1991 | Mercado v. Ahmed | 756 F. Supp. 1097 | 21 |
| 2009 | Andrews v. Burge | 660 F. Supp. 2d 868 | 19 |
| 1993 | Stanczyk v. Black & Decker, Inc. | 836 F. Supp. 565 | 18 |
| 2010 | Grede v. Bank of New York Mellon | 441 B.R. 864 | 17 |
| 1991 | Thompson v. Pizza Hut of America, Inc. | 767 F. Supp. 916 | 17 |
| 1989 | Teradyne, Inc. v. Clear Communications Corp. | 707 F. Supp. 353 | 17 |
| 2007 | Khorrami v. Rolince | 493 F. Supp. 2d 1061 | 16 |
| 1994 | Sullivan v. Cheshier | 846 F. Supp. 654 | 16 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 174 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 Block Zagel?
- President Ronald Reagan appointed James Block Zagel to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in 1987.
- Was James Block Zagel appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- James Block Zagel was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was James Block Zagel's confirmation vote?
- James Block Zagel was confirmed by voice vote on April 21, 1987. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court was James Block Zagel on?
- James Block Zagel was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
Sources
Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.
- FJC Biographical Directory
- Wikidata
- Portrait: United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois (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 Northern District of Illinois. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).