Who appointed John Francis Grady?

President Gerald Ford appointed John Francis Grady to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in 1975.

Was John Francis Grady appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?

John Francis Grady was appointed by President Gerald Ford, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.

What was John Francis Grady's confirmation vote?

John Francis Grady was confirmed by voice vote on November 20, 1975. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.

Northern District of Illinois / Appointed 1975 / Served to 2019

John Francis Grady

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

Appointed by President Gerald Ford in 1975 and confirmed by voice vote, John Francis Grady was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. He earned a law degree from Northwestern University School of Law (now Pritzker School of Law) in 1954. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Lived: 1929–2019
Appointed by: Gerald Ford, 1975
Confirmed: by voice vote
Education: Northwestern 1952 · Northwestern Law (now Pritzker School of Law) 1954
Succeeded: Edwin Albert Robson
Succeeded by: Robert William Gettleman

Federal judicial service

Year	Court	Appointed by	Vote
1975	Northern District of Illinois succeeded Edwin Albert Robson	Ford (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

Northwestern University	B.S.	1952
Northwestern University School of Law (now Pritzker School of Law)	J.D.	1954

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Grady was assigned 4,539 district-court cases (1977–2014). Median time from filing to termination: 217 days across 4,537 closed cases.

Labor & ERISA17%

Personal-injury torts14%

Real property14%

Other federal statutes12%

Contract12%

Civil rights10%

Other21%

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 68 of Grady’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 53 were affirmed, 10 reversed or vacated, and 5 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, Grady authored 238 published opinions for the court (1976–2011). Most cited: Mink v. University of Chicago (60 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
1978	Mink v. University of Chicago	460 F. Supp. 713	60
1989	B.H. v. Johnson	715 F. Supp. 1387	53
1987	Matter of Ryan	82 B.R. 929	42
1979	Smith v. Groover	468 F. Supp. 105	37
1997	Petri v. Gatlin	997 F. Supp. 956	35
2006	Beltran v. Brentwood North Healthcare Center, LLC	426 F. Supp. 2d 827	34
1978	MCI Communications Corp. v. American Telephone & Telegraph Co.	462 F. Supp. 1072	33
1978	Ferguson v. Kelley	448 F. Supp. 919	32
1988	Williams v. State Board of Elections	696 F. Supp. 1563	30
1986	Illinois Department of Public Aid v. Ellis (In Re Ellis)	66 B.R. 821	30
1981	Hess v. Great Atlantic & Pac. Tea Co., Inc.	520 F. Supp. 373	29
1980	Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Sears, Roebuck & Co.	504 F. Supp. 241	29
1978	Ferguson v. Kelly	455 F. Supp. 324	29
1986	Wayne Film Systems Corp. v. Film Recovery Systems Corp.	64 B.R. 45	28
1977	Evanston Motor Co., Inc. v. Mid-Southern Toyota Distributors, Inc.	436 F. Supp. 1370	28

Showing the 15 most-cited of 238 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 Francis Grady?: President Gerald Ford appointed John Francis Grady to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in 1975.
Was John Francis Grady appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?: John Francis Grady was appointed by President Gerald Ford, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was John Francis Grady's confirmation vote?: John Francis Grady was confirmed by voice vote on November 20, 1975. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court was John Francis Grady on?: John Francis Grady 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.

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

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44 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).