Northern District of California / Appointed 1942 / Served to 1961

Louis Earl Goodman

Judge, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

Appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1942 and confirmed by voice vote, Louis Earl Goodman was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. He earned a law degree from University of California Hastings College of the Law (now UC College of the Law, San Francisco) in 1915. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Lived
1892–1961
Appointed by
Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1942
Confirmed
by voice vote
Education
University of California, Berkeley 1913 · University of California Hastings College of the Law (now UC College of the Law, San Francisco) 1915

Federal judicial service

YearCourtAppointed byVote
1942Northern District of CaliforniaF.D. Roosevelt (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

In our data, Goodman authored 93 published opinions for the court (1943–1961). Most cited: Wilson v. Transocean Airlines (80 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 93 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 Louis Earl Goodman?
President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Louis Earl Goodman to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in 1942.
Was Louis Earl Goodman appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
Louis Earl Goodman was appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Louis Earl Goodman's confirmation vote?
Louis Earl Goodman was confirmed by voice vote on December 15, 1942. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court was Louis Earl Goodman on?
Louis Earl Goodman was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Sources

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

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