Eastern District of Pennsylvania / Appointed 1992 / Senior status since 2008

John R. Padova

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

Appointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1992 and confirmed by voice vote, John R. Padova is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. He earned a law degree from Temple University School of Law (now James E. Beasley School of Law) in 1959. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Born
1935 · age 91
Appointed by
George H.W. Bush, 1992
Confirmed
by voice vote
Education
Villanova 1956 · Temple Law (now James E. Beasley School of Law) 1959

Federal judicial service

YearCourtAppointed byVote
1992Eastern District of PennsylvaniaG.H.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, Padova was assigned 6,098 district-court cases (1978–2026). Median time from filing to termination: 184 days across 5,898 closed cases.

Personal-injury torts27%
Civil rights15%
Contract14%
Prisoner & habeas12%
Other federal statutes7%
Other civil matters7%
Other18%

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 133 of Padova’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 117 were affirmed, 11 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, Padova authored 93 published opinions for the court (1992–2011). Most cited: Sun Co. v. Badger Design & Constructors, Inc. (61 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 93 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 R. Padova?
President George H.W. Bush appointed John R. Padova to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in 1992.
Was John R. Padova appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
John R. Padova was appointed by President George H.W. Bush, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was John R. Padova's confirmation vote?
John R. Padova was confirmed by voice vote on March 13, 1992. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court is John R. Padova on?
John R. Padova 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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34 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).