Who appointed Lawrence L. Piersol?

President William J. Clinton appointed Lawrence L. Piersol to the U.S. District Court for the District of South Dakota in 1993.

Was Lawrence L. Piersol appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?

Lawrence L. Piersol was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.

What was Lawrence L. Piersol's confirmation vote?

Lawrence L. Piersol was confirmed by voice vote on November 20, 1993. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.

District of South Dakota / Appointed 1993 / Senior status since 2009

Lawrence L. Piersol

Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of South Dakota

Appointed by President William J. Clinton in 1993 and confirmed by voice vote, Lawrence L. Piersol is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of South Dakota. He earned a law degree from University of South Dakota School of Law (now Knudson School of Law) in 1965. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Born: 1940 · age 86
Appointed by: William J. Clinton, 1993
Confirmed: by voice vote
Education: University of South Dakota 1962 · University of South Dakota Law (now Knudson School of Law) 1965
Succeeded: Donald James Porter
Succeeded by: Jeffrey Lynn Viken

Federal judicial service

Year	Court	Appointed by	Vote
1993	District of South Dakota succeeded Donald James Porter	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 South Dakota	B.A.	1962
University of South Dakota School of Law (now Knudson School of Law)	J.D.	1965

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Piersol was assigned 2,777 district-court cases (1989–2025). Median time from filing to termination: 242 days across 2,733 closed cases.

Prisoner & habeas30%

Contract16%

Personal-injury torts12%

Civil rights10%

Other civil matters9%

Other federal statutes5%

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 131 of Piersol’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 100 were affirmed, 14 reversed or vacated, and 17 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, Piersol authored 165 published opinions for the court (1994–2010). Most cited: Salveson v. Miller (18 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	Salveson v. Miller	489 F. Supp. 2d 963	18
2000	Brookings Municipal Utilities, Inc. v. Amoco Chemical Co.	103 F. Supp. 2d 1169	18
2007	Yankton Sioux Tribe v. United States Department of Health & Human Services	496 F. Supp. 2d 1044	17
2002	Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad v. South Dakota	236 F. Supp. 2d 989	15
2001	PatentWizard, Inc. v. Kinko's, Inc.	163 F. Supp. 2d 1069	15
1995	Yankton Sioux Tribe v. Southern Missouri Waste Management District	890 F. Supp. 878	15
2000	United States v. Mendoza-Carrillo	107 F. Supp. 2d 1098	14
1998	Yankton Sioux Tribe v. Gaffey	14 F. Supp. 2d 1135	14
2006	Hot Stuff Foods, LLC v. Mean Gene's Enterprises, Inc.	468 F. Supp. 2d 1078	13
1996	United States Ex Rel. Yankton Sioux Tribe v. Gambler's Supply, Inc.	925 F. Supp. 658	12
1995	Huisinga v. Koch (In Re Koch)	187 B.R. 664	12
1995	Dakota Wesleyan University v. Nelson (In Re Nelson)	188 B.R. 32	11
2004	Delonga v. Diocese of Sioux Falls	329 F. Supp. 2d 1092	10
1996	Appley Bros. v. United States	924 F. Supp. 944	10
2005	Lindholm v. Hassan	369 F. Supp. 2d 1104	9

Showing the 15 most-cited of 165 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 Lawrence L. Piersol?: President William J. Clinton appointed Lawrence L. Piersol to the U.S. District Court for the District of South Dakota in 1993.
Was Lawrence L. Piersol appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?: Lawrence L. Piersol was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Lawrence L. Piersol's confirmation vote?: Lawrence L. Piersol was confirmed by voice vote on November 20, 1993. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court is Lawrence L. Piersol on?: Lawrence L. Piersol is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of South Dakota.

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.

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