Who appointed Joan B. Gottschall?

President William J. Clinton appointed Joan B. Gottschall to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in 1996.

Was Joan B. Gottschall appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?

Joan B. Gottschall was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.

What was Joan B. Gottschall's confirmation vote?

Joan B. Gottschall was confirmed by voice vote on July 25, 1996. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.

Northern District of Illinois / Appointed 1996 / Senior status since 2012

Joan B. Gottschall

Judge, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois

Appointed by President William J. Clinton in 1996 and confirmed by voice vote, Joan B. Gottschall is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. She earned a law degree from Stanford Law School in 1973. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Born: 1947 · age 79
Appointed by: William J. Clinton, 1996
Confirmed: by voice vote
Education: Smith College 1969 · Stanford Law School 1973
Succeeded: James Byron Moran
Succeeded by: Sara Lee Ellis

Federal judicial service

Year	Court	Appointed by	Vote
1996	Northern District of Illinois succeeded James Byron Moran	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

Smith College	B.A.	1969
Stanford Law School	J.D.	1973

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Gottschall was assigned 6,640 district-court cases (1974–2026). Median time from filing to termination: 182 days across 6,395 closed cases.

Civil rights17%

Labor & ERISA16%

Other federal statutes13%

Contract11%

Real property10%

Prisoner & habeas8%

Other26%

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 188 of Gottschall’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 149 were affirmed, 28 reversed or vacated, and 11 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, Gottschall authored 96 published opinions for the court (1993–2011). Most cited: Arnold v. Janssen Pharmaceutica, Inc. (35 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
2002	Arnold v. Janssen Pharmaceutica, Inc.	215 F. Supp. 2d 951	35
2011	Betts v. CITY OF CHICAGO, ILL.	784 F. Supp. 2d 1020	34
2010	MacNeil Automotive Products, Ltd. v. Cannon Automotive Ltd.	715 F. Supp. 2d 786	29
2004	Patterson v. Burge	328 F. Supp. 2d 878	26
2002	Spherion Corp. v. Cincinnati Financial Corp.	183 F. Supp. 2d 1052	24
2011	In Re Plasma-Derivative Protein Therapies Antitrust Litigation	764 F. Supp. 2d 991	22
1998	Gruca v. Alpha Therapeutic Corp.	19 F. Supp. 2d 862	21
2000	Kendall-Jackson Winery, Ltd. v. Branson	82 F. Supp. 2d 844	19
2002	O'Brien v. Encotech Construction Services, Inc.	183 F. Supp. 2d 1047	18
2009	Levin v. Greco	415 B.R. 663	17
2009	Stacel v. Teva Pharmaceuticals, USA	620 F. Supp. 2d 899	16
2006	Rogers v. Baxter International Inc.	417 F. Supp. 2d 974	16
2010	United States v. Chaidez	730 F. Supp. 2d 896	15
2002	Board of Trustees of the Teachers' Retirement System of Illinois v. WorldCom, Inc.	244 F. Supp. 2d 900	15
2010	Rogers v. BAXTER INTERNATIONAL INC.	710 F. Supp. 2d 722	14

Showing the 15 most-cited of 96 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 Joan B. Gottschall?: President William J. Clinton appointed Joan B. Gottschall to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in 1996.
Was Joan B. Gottschall appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?: Joan B. Gottschall was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Joan B. Gottschall's confirmation vote?: Joan B. Gottschall was confirmed by voice vote on July 25, 1996. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court is Joan B. Gottschall on?: Joan B. Gottschall is 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.

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

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

30 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).