Who appointed John D. Bates?

President George W. Bush appointed John D. Bates to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in 2001.

Was John D. Bates appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?

John D. Bates was appointed by President George W. Bush, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.

What was John D. Bates's confirmation vote?

The Senate confirmed John D. Bates 97–0 on December 11, 2001.

District of Columbia / Appointed 2001 / Senior status since 2014

John D. Bates

Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

Appointed by President George W. Bush in 2001 and confirmed by the Senate 97–0, John D. Bates is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. He earned a law degree from University of Maryland School of Law (now Francis King Carey School of Law) in 1976. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Born: 1946 · age 80
Appointed by: George W. Bush, 2001
Confirmed: 97–0
Education: Wesleyan 1968 · University of Maryland Law (now Francis King Carey School of Law) 1976
Succeeded: Stanley S. Harris

Federal judicial service

Year	Court	Appointed by	Vote
2001	District of Columbia succeeded Stanley S. Harris	G.W. Bush (R)	97–0

Party letters show the appointing president’s party, not the judge’s own.

Confirmation vote

Nomination Confirmed 97–0 on December 11, 2001 · 107th Congress, Roll Call 361. Each senator links to their judicial-voting record.

Voted to confirm · 97

50 D, 46 R, 1 I

Did not vote · 3

3 R

Education

Wesleyan University	B.A.	1968
University of Maryland School of Law (now Francis King Carey School of Law)	J.D.	1976

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Bates was assigned 2,642 district-court cases (1997–2026). Median time from filing to termination: 198 days across 2,330 closed cases.

Other federal statutes22%

Personal-injury torts16%

Civil rights11%

Other civil matters11%

Criminal8%

Contract8%

Other25%

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 289 of Bates’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 213 were affirmed, 56 reversed or vacated, and 20 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, Bates authored 1,777 published opinions for the court (2002–2026). Most cited: Sierra Club v. Mainella (384 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
2012	Sierra Club v. Mainella	459 F. Supp. 2d 76	384
2003	Lester v. Natsios	290 F. Supp. 2d 11	225
2007	Wright v. Foreign Service Grievance Board	503 F. Supp. 2d 163	185
2009	Nurriddin v. Bolden	674 F. Supp. 2d 64	180
2007	Stuttering Found. of America v. Springer	498 F. Supp. 2d 203	137
2005	Nurriddin v. Goldin	382 F. Supp. 2d 79	136
2005	Salazar v. Islamic Republic of Iran	370 F. Supp. 2d 105	124
2011	Williams v. GEICO CORP.	792 F. Supp. 2d 58	119
2003	Bryant v. Brownlee	265 F. Supp. 2d 52	101
2002	Dale v. Internal Revenue Service	238 F. Supp. 2d 99	100
2006	Kopff v. Battaglia	425 F. Supp. 2d 76	95
2005	Bell v. Gonzales	398 F. Supp. 2d 78	89
2007	North Carolina Fisheries Ass'n, Inc. v. Gutierrez	518 F. Supp. 2d 62	86
2008	Pendleton v. Mukasey	552 F. Supp. 2d 14	79
2008	Breakman v. AOL LLC	545 F. Supp. 2d 96	79

Showing the 15 most-cited of 1,777 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 John D. Bates?: President George W. Bush appointed John D. Bates to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in 2001.
Was John D. Bates appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?: John D. Bates was appointed by President George W. Bush, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was John D. Bates's confirmation vote?: The Senate confirmed John D. Bates 97–0 on December 11, 2001.
Which court is John D. Bates on?: John D. Bates is 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.

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

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

24 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).