District of Maine / Appointed 2003 / Senior status since 2017

John A. Woodcock Jr.

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

Appointed by President George W. Bush in 2003 and confirmed by voice vote, John A. Woodcock Jr. is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine. He earned a law degree from University of Maine School of Law in 1976. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Born
1950 · age 76
Appointed by
George W. Bush, 2003
Confirmed
by voice vote
Education
Bowdoin College 1972 · University of Maine Law 1976
Succeeded
Gene Carter

Federal judicial service

YearCourtAppointed byVote
2003District of Maine
succeeded Gene Carter
G.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, Woodcock was assigned 2,417 district-court cases (1990–2026). Median time from filing to termination: 195 days across 1,994 closed cases.

Civil rights15%
Social Security13%
Other civil matters11%
Criminal10%
Prisoner & habeas10%
Personal-injury torts9%
Other31%

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 319 of Woodcock’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 273 were affirmed, 31 reversed or vacated, and 15 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, Woodcock authored 434 published opinions for the court (2003–2012). Most cited: Gomes v. University of Maine System (37 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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

YearCaseCitationCited
2005Gomes v. University of Maine System365 F. Supp. 2d 637
2005Everett J. Prescott, Inc. v. Ross383 F. Supp. 2d 18033
2004Gomes v. University of Maine System304 F. Supp. 2d 11732
2005Brown v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.402 F. Supp. 2d 30330
2008United States v. Booker570 F. Supp. 2d 16125
2007Demmons v. Tritch484 F. Supp. 2d 17723
2011Johnson v. VCG Holding Corp.767 F. Supp. 2d 20821
2011Blanco v. Bath Iron Works Corp.802 F. Supp. 2d 21520
2008Animal Welfare Institute v. Martin588 F. Supp. 2d 7020
2007Marcello v. Maine489 F. Supp. 2d 7019
2004Doe v. Solvay Pharmaceuticals, Inc.350 F. Supp. 2d 25719
2010Osher v. UNIVERSITY OF MAINE SYSTEM703 F. Supp. 2d 5118
2011Henderson v. Laser Spine Institute LLC815 F. Supp. 2d 35316
2010OFFICEMAX INCORPORATED v. County Qwick Print, Inc.709 F. Supp. 2d 10016
2010Carmichael v. Verso Paper, LLC679 F. Supp. 2d 10916

Showing the 15 most-cited of 434 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 A. Woodcock Jr.?
President George W. Bush appointed John A. Woodcock Jr. to the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine in 2003.
Was John A. Woodcock Jr. appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
John A. Woodcock Jr. was appointed by President George W. Bush, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was John A. Woodcock Jr.'s confirmation vote?
John A. Woodcock Jr. was confirmed by voice vote on June 12, 2003. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court is John A. Woodcock Jr. on?
John A. Woodcock Jr. is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine.

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.

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