Eastern District of Washington / Appointed 1980 / Served to 2024

Justin Lowe Quackenbush

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

Appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1980 and confirmed by voice vote, Justin Lowe Quackenbush was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington. He earned a law degree from Gonzaga University School of Law in 1957. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Lived
1929–2024
Appointed by
Jimmy Carter, 1980
Confirmed
by voice vote
Education
University of Idaho 1951 · Gonzaga Law 1957
Succeeded by
Robert H. Whaley

Federal judicial service

YearCourtAppointed byVote
1980Eastern District of WashingtonCarter (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

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Quackenbush was assigned 1,940 district-court cases (1981–2019). Median time from filing to termination: 215 days across 1,940 closed cases.

Prisoner & habeas35%
Personal-injury torts13%
Contract12%
Civil rights8%
Other federal statutes7%
Labor & ERISA4%
Other21%

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 54 of Quackenbush’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 47 were affirmed, 6 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, Quackenbush authored 82 published opinions for the court (1980–2010). Most cited: Henricksen v. ConocoPhillips Co. (57 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 82 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 Justin Lowe Quackenbush?
President Jimmy Carter appointed Justin Lowe Quackenbush to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington in 1980.
Was Justin Lowe Quackenbush appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
Justin Lowe Quackenbush was appointed by President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Justin Lowe Quackenbush's confirmation vote?
Justin Lowe Quackenbush was confirmed by voice vote on June 18, 1980. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court was Justin Lowe Quackenbush on?
Justin Lowe Quackenbush was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington.

Sources

Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

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