Seventh Circuit / Appointed 1985 / Senior status since 2008

Kenneth Francis Ripple

Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit

Appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1985 and confirmed by voice vote, Kenneth Francis Ripple is a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. He earned a law degree from University of Virginia School of Law in 1968. Opinions & record ↓ Sources ↓

Born
1943 · age 83
Appointed by
Ronald Reagan, 1985
Confirmed
by voice vote
Education
Fordham 1965 · University of Virginia Law 1968

Federal judicial service

YearCourtAppointed byVote
1985Seventh CircuitReagan (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

In our data, Ripple authored 453 published opinions for the court (2005–2026). Most cited: Christopher Pyles v. Magid Fahim (1,225 citations).

Published, precedential opinions from the CourtListener corpus. Counts and rankings are objective and recomputable: how we count. We describe the record, not the judge.

Selected opinions

Showing the 15 most-cited of 453 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 Kenneth Francis Ripple?
President Ronald Reagan appointed Kenneth Francis Ripple to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in 1985.
Was Kenneth Francis Ripple appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
Kenneth Francis Ripple was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Kenneth Francis Ripple's confirmation vote?
Kenneth Francis Ripple was confirmed by voice vote on May 3, 1985. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court is Kenneth Francis Ripple on?
Kenneth Francis Ripple is a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

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.

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