Who appointed John Garrett Penn?

President Jimmy Carter appointed John Garrett Penn to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in 1979.

Was John Garrett Penn appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?

John Garrett Penn was appointed by President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.

What was John Garrett Penn's confirmation vote?

John Garrett Penn was confirmed by voice vote on March 21, 1979. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.

District of Columbia / Appointed 1979 / Served to 2007

John Garrett Penn

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

Appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1979 and confirmed by voice vote, John Garrett Penn was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. He earned a law degree from Boston University School of Law in 1957. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Lived: 1932–2007
Appointed by: Jimmy Carter, 1979
Confirmed: by voice vote
Education: University of Massachusetts 1954 · Boston Law 1957
Succeeded: Joseph Cornelius Waddy
Succeeded by: Ellen Segal Huvelle

Federal judicial service

Year	Court	Appointed by	Vote
1979	District of Columbia succeeded Joseph Cornelius Waddy	Carter (D)	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

Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs (now Princeton School of Public and International Affairs)
University of Massachusetts	A.B.	1954
Boston University School of Law	LL.B.	1957

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Penn was assigned 1,596 district-court cases (1975–2006). Median time from filing to termination: 273 days across 1,593 closed cases.

Contract29%

Personal-injury torts15%

Other federal statutes14%

Prisoner & habeas13%

Civil rights13%

Labor & ERISA6%

Other10%

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 18 of Penn’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 9 were affirmed, 8 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, Penn authored 155 published opinions for the court (1979–2007). Most cited: Jarrell v. Tisch (813 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
1987	Jarrell v. Tisch	656 F. Supp. 237	813
1982	Photo Data, Inc. v. Sawyer	533 F. Supp. 348	81
1981	United States v. Jenkins	530 F. Supp. 8	49
1999	Lans v. GATEWAY 2000, INC.	84 F. Supp. 2d 112	28
1990	Sherwood Van Lines, Inc. v. United States Department of the Navy	732 F. Supp. 240	25
2000	MacKtal v. Garde	111 F. Supp. 2d 18	24
2000	Lans v. GATEWAY 2000, INC.	110 F. Supp. 2d 1	21
1988	Orlikow v. United States	682 F. Supp. 77	21
1990	Watkins v. Communications Workers of America, Local 2336	736 F. Supp. 1156	20
1986	United States v. Mosuro	648 F. Supp. 316	18
1990	Leslie and Elliott Co., Inc. v. Garrett	732 F. Supp. 191	17
1989	Michelin v. Jenkins	704 F. Supp. 1	17
1988	Ridgewells Caterer, Inc. v. Nelson	688 F. Supp. 760	17
2007	Daskalea v. Washington Humane Society	480 F. Supp. 2d 16	16
1991	United States v. Dale	782 F. Supp. 615	16

Showing the 15 most-cited of 155 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 Garrett Penn?: President Jimmy Carter appointed John Garrett Penn to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in 1979.
Was John Garrett Penn appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?: John Garrett Penn was appointed by President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was John Garrett Penn's confirmation vote?: John Garrett Penn was confirmed by voice vote on March 21, 1979. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court was John Garrett Penn on?: John Garrett Penn was 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.

28 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).