Eastern District of Pennsylvania / Appointed 2008 / Senior status since 2018

Joel Harvey Slomsky

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

Appointed by President George W. Bush in 2008 and confirmed by voice vote, Joel Harvey Slomsky is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. He earned a law degree from New York Law School in 1970. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Born
1946 · age 80
Appointed by
George W. Bush, 2008
Confirmed
by voice vote
Education
Brooklyn College, City of New York 1967 · New York Law School 1970

Federal judicial service

YearCourtAppointed byVote
2008Eastern District of PennsylvaniaG.W. Bush (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

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Slomsky was assigned 2,945 district-court cases (1980–2026). Median time from filing to termination: 210 days across 2,639 closed cases.

Civil rights17%
Other civil matters16%
Personal-injury torts15%
Other federal statutes12%
Contract11%
Prisoner & habeas10%
Other19%

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 179 of Slomsky’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 140 were affirmed, 23 reversed or vacated, and 16 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, Slomsky authored 20 published opinions for the court (2008–2011). Most cited: Martin v. Ford Motor Co. (29 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 20 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 Joel Harvey Slomsky?
President George W. Bush appointed Joel Harvey Slomsky to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in 2008.
Was Joel Harvey Slomsky appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
Joel Harvey Slomsky was appointed by President George W. Bush, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Joel Harvey Slomsky's confirmation vote?
Joel Harvey Slomsky was confirmed by voice vote on September 26, 2008. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court is Joel Harvey Slomsky on?
Joel Harvey Slomsky is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern 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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17 years on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).