John Spencer Letts
Appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1985 and confirmed by voice vote, John Spencer Letts was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. He earned a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1960. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Lived
- 1934–2014
- Appointed by
- Ronald Reagan, 1985
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- Yale 1956 · Harvard Law School 1960
- Succeeded by
- James V. Selna
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | Central District of California | 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
| Yale University | B.A. | 1956 |
| Harvard Law School | LL.B. | 1960 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Letts was assigned 3,769 district-court cases (1985–2014). Median time from filing to termination: 190 days across 3,766 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 32 of Letts’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 29 were affirmed, 2 reversed or vacated, and 1 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, Letts authored 43 published opinions for the court (1986–2008). Most cited: Bentzlin v. Hughes Aircraft Co. (47 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | Bentzlin v. Hughes Aircraft Co. | 833 F. Supp. 1486 | 47 |
| 1989 | United States v. Davis | 715 F. Supp. 1473 | 25 |
| 1994 | International Business MacHines Corp. v. Brown | 857 F. Supp. 1384 | 23 |
| 1986 | Wagner v. Sanders Associates, Inc. | 638 F. Supp. 742 | 19 |
| 1986 | Cox v. Resilient Flooring Division of Congoleum Corp. | 638 F. Supp. 726 | 18 |
| 1992 | Gomez v. Gates | 804 F. Supp. 69 | 17 |
| 1994 | Paulson v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance | 867 F. Supp. 911 | 14 |
| 1986 | Matek v. Murat | 638 F. Supp. 775 | 14 |
| 2000 | Lacy v. Lewis | 123 F. Supp. 2d 533 | 12 |
| 1993 | Bloom v. Vasquez | 840 F. Supp. 1362 | 11 |
| 1997 | United States v. Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Mission Indians of Santa Ynez Reservation | 983 F. Supp. 1317 | 9 |
| 1987 | Zurich Ins. Co. v. Alvarez by and Through Calva | 669 F. Supp. 307 | 8 |
| 2002 | Buckley v. Terhune | 266 F. Supp. 2d 1124 | 7 |
| 1998 | United States v. Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Mission Indians of the Santa Ynez Reservation | 33 F. Supp. 2d 862 | 7 |
| 1991 | Altus Bank v. State Farm Fire & Casualty Co. | 758 F. Supp. 567 | 7 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 43 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 Spencer Letts?
- President Ronald Reagan appointed John Spencer Letts to the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in 1985.
- Was John Spencer Letts appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- John Spencer Letts was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was John Spencer Letts's confirmation vote?
- John Spencer Letts was confirmed by voice vote on December 16, 1985. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court was John Spencer Letts on?
- John Spencer Letts was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
Sources
Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.
- FJC Biographical Directory
- 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.
28 years on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).