Who appointed John E. Steele?

President William J. Clinton appointed John E. Steele to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida in 2000.

Was John E. Steele appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?

John E. Steele was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.

What was John E. Steele's confirmation vote?

John E. Steele was confirmed by voice vote on July 21, 2000. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.

Middle District of Florida / Appointed 2000 / Served to 2026

John E. Steele

Judge, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida

Appointed by President William J. Clinton in 2000 and confirmed by voice vote, John E. Steele was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. He earned a law degree from University of Detroit Law School (now University of Detroit Mercy School of Law) in 1973. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Lived: 1949–2026
Appointed by: William J. Clinton, 2000
Confirmed: by voice vote
Education: University of Detroit (now of Detroit Mercy) 1971 · University of Detroit Law School (now of Detroit Mercy Law) 1973
Succeeded by: Wendy Williams Berger

Federal judicial service

Year	Court	Appointed by	Vote
2000	Middle District of Florida	Clinton (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

University of Detroit (now University of Detroit Mercy)	B.A.	1971
University of Detroit Law School (now University of Detroit Mercy School of Law)	J.D.	1973

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Steele was assigned 7,980 district-court cases (1979–2026). Median time from filing to termination: 196 days across 7,455 closed cases.

Prisoner & habeas30%

Contract12%

Labor & ERISA11%

Civil rights11%

Other civil matters10%

Other federal statutes8%

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 493 of Steele’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 423 were affirmed, 47 reversed or vacated, and 23 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, Steele authored 59 published opinions for the court (1997–2011). Most cited: Mendez Lynch v. Mendez Lynch (64 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
2002	Mendez Lynch v. Mendez Lynch	220 F. Supp. 2d 1347	64
2005	Whitney Information Network, Inc. v. Gagnon	353 F. Supp. 2d 1208	23
2005	Pinchinat v. Graco Children's Products, Inc.	390 F. Supp. 2d 1141	19
2009	Nationwide Mutual Co. v. Ft. Myers Total Rehab Center, Inc.	657 F. Supp. 2d 1279	17
2008	Stein v. Paradigm Mirsol, LLC	551 F. Supp. 2d 1323	13
2009	Securities & Exchange Commission v. Founding Partners Capital Management	639 F. Supp. 2d 1291	11
2010	Thomas v. BOMBARDIER RECREATIONAL PRODUCTS, INC.	682 F. Supp. 2d 1297	9
2010	Pessin v. RCMP Enterprises, LLC (In Re Weeks Landing, LLC)	439 B.R. 897	8
2006	Zivojinovich v. Ritz Carlton Hotel Co., LLC	445 F. Supp. 2d 1337	8
2006	Van Buren Industrial Investors v. Henderson (In Re Henderson)	341 B.R. 783	8
2002	Obermaier v. Kenneth Copeland Evangelistic Ass'n	208 F. Supp. 2d 1288	7
2011	Vandenbosch v. Waage (In Re Vandenbosch)	459 B.R. 140	6
2011	Feldkamp v. Long Bay Partners, LLC	773 F. Supp. 2d 1273	6
2010	DeRosa v. Rambosk	732 F. Supp. 2d 1285	6
2007	Maschmeier v. Scott	508 F. Supp. 2d 1180	6

Showing the 15 most-cited of 59 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 E. Steele?: President William J. Clinton appointed John E. Steele to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida in 2000.
Was John E. Steele appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?: John E. Steele was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was John E. Steele's confirmation vote?: John E. Steele was confirmed by voice vote on July 21, 2000. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court was John E. Steele on?: John E. Steele was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

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.

25 years on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).