Louis Falk Oberdorfer
Appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1977 and confirmed by voice vote, Louis Falk Oberdorfer was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. He earned a law degree from Yale Law School in 1946. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Lived
- 1919–2013
- Appointed by
- Jimmy Carter, 1977
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- Dartmouth College 1939 · Yale Law School 1946
- Succeeded
- William Blakely Jones
- Succeeded by
- Emmet G. Sullivan
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1977 | District of Columbia succeeded William Blakely Jones | Carter (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
| Dartmouth College | A.B. | 1939 |
| Yale Law School | LL.B. | 1946 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Oberdorfer was assigned 1,934 district-court cases (1984–2006). Median time from filing to termination: 252 days across 1,934 closed cases.
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.
In our data, Oberdorfer authored 321 published opinions for the court (1978–2008). Most cited: Rainey v. American Forest and Paper Ass'n, Inc. (69 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Rainey v. American Forest and Paper Ass'n, Inc. | 26 F. Supp. 2d 82 | 69 |
| 2001 | Daliberti v. Republic of Iraq | 146 F. Supp. 2d 19 | 51 |
| 2001 | Furash & Co., Inc. v. McClave | 130 F. Supp. 2d 48 | 50 |
| 1986 | Jones v. McKenzie | 628 F. Supp. 1500 | 40 |
| 1988 | Thomas v. News World Communications | 681 F. Supp. 55 | 38 |
| 2008 | Doe v. Exxon Mobil Corp. | 573 F. Supp. 2d 16 | 37 |
| 1994 | Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Catholic University of America | 856 F. Supp. 1 | 37 |
| 1990 | Best v. District of Columbia | 743 F. Supp. 44 | 37 |
| 1982 | Aero Corp. v. Department of the Navy | 540 F. Supp. 180 | 36 |
| 2005 | Doe v. Exxon Mobil Corp. | 393 F. Supp. 2d 20 | 35 |
| 1981 | Alsco-Harvard Fraud Litigation Consolidated Cases | 523 F. Supp. 790 | 30 |
| 2005 | US Ex Rel. Ervin and Assoc. v. Hamilton SEC. | 370 F. Supp. 2d 18 | 28 |
| 1992 | Roney v. United States | 790 F. Supp. 23 | 28 |
| 1986 | Lewis v. Elliott | 628 F. Supp. 512 | 28 |
| 1993 | Martin v. Ezeagu | 816 F. Supp. 20 | 27 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 321 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 Falk Oberdorfer?
- President Jimmy Carter appointed Louis Falk Oberdorfer to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in 1977.
- Was Louis Falk Oberdorfer appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- Louis Falk Oberdorfer was appointed by President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was Louis Falk Oberdorfer's confirmation vote?
- Louis Falk Oberdorfer was confirmed by voice vote on October 7, 1977. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court was Louis Falk Oberdorfer on?
- Louis Falk Oberdorfer was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Sources
Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.
- FJC Biographical Directory
- Wikidata
- Portrait: Beverly Rezneck (Public domain), via Wikimedia Commons
- CourtListener bulk data (Free Law Project): authored opinions & citation counts
How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources
See something wrong? Report an error. Fixes are logged in the corrections log.
35 years on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).