Who appointed Joseph James Farnan Jr.?

President Ronald Reagan appointed Joseph James Farnan Jr. to the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware in 1985.

Was Joseph James Farnan Jr. appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?

Joseph James Farnan Jr. was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.

What was Joseph James Farnan Jr.'s confirmation vote?

Joseph James Farnan Jr. was confirmed by voice vote on July 16, 1985. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.

District of Delaware / Appointed 1985 / Served to 2010

Joseph James Farnan Jr.

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

Appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1985 and confirmed by voice vote, Joseph James Farnan Jr. was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware. He earned a law degree from University of Toledo College of Law in 1970. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Born: 1945 · age 81
Appointed by: Ronald Reagan, 1985
Confirmed: by voice vote
Education: King's College, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania 1967 · University of Toledo College of Law 1970
Succeeded by: Richard Gibson Andrews

Federal judicial service

Year	Court	Appointed by	Vote
1985	District of Delaware	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

King's College, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania	B.A.	1967
University of Toledo College of Law	J.D.	1970

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Farnan was assigned 3,746 district-court cases (1966–2010). Median time from filing to termination: 316 days across 3,745 closed cases.

Prisoner & habeas29%

Bankruptcy15%

Intellectual property14%

Contract9%

Civil rights8%

Personal-injury torts8%

Other17%

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 77 of Farnan’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 64 were affirmed, 10 reversed or vacated, and 3 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, Farnan authored 556 published opinions for the court (1985–2010). Most cited: In Re Intel Corp. Microprocessor Antitrust Lit. (78 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
2007	In Re Intel Corp. Microprocessor Antitrust Lit.	496 F. Supp. 2d 404	78
1999	Resource Ventures, Inc. v. Resources Management International, Inc.	42 F. Supp. 2d 423	59
1991	Mellon v. Delaware & Hudson Railway Co. (In Re Delaware & HudSon Railway Co.)	122 B.R. 887	46
2009	Symbol Technologies, Inc. v. Aruba Networks, Inc.	609 F. Supp. 2d 353	45
2008	Trevino v. Merscorp, Inc.	583 F. Supp. 2d 521	45
1999	Dentsply International, Inc. v. Kerr Manufacturing Co.	42 F. Supp. 2d 385	42
1994	In Re ML-Lee Acquisition Fund II, L.P. & ML-Lee Acquisition Fund (Retirement Accounts) II, L.P. Securities Litigation	848 F. Supp. 527	42
2009	Sun Microsystems, Inc. v. Versata Enterprises, Inc.	630 F. Supp. 2d 395	40
2008	TriStrata Technology, Inc. v. Emulgen Laboratories, Inc.	537 F. Supp. 2d 635	40
2002	Woods v. Kearney	215 F. Supp. 2d 458	40
2003	Reach & Associates, P.C. v. Dencer	269 F. Supp. 2d 497	36
1990	Dentsply International, Inc. v. Kerr Manufacturing Co.	734 F. Supp. 656	36
1990	Jordan v. Kent Recovery Services, Inc.	731 F. Supp. 652	36
2008	SOLAE, LLC v. Hershey Canada, Inc.	557 F. Supp. 2d 452	32
1985	Martin v. Delaware Law School of Widener University	625 F. Supp. 1288	32

Showing the 15 most-cited of 556 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 Joseph James Farnan Jr.?: President Ronald Reagan appointed Joseph James Farnan Jr. to the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware in 1985.
Was Joseph James Farnan Jr. appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?: Joseph James Farnan Jr. was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Joseph James Farnan Jr.'s confirmation vote?: Joseph James Farnan Jr. was confirmed by voice vote on July 16, 1985. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court was Joseph James Farnan Jr. on?: Joseph James Farnan Jr. was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware.

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 District of Delaware. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).