Middle District of Pennsylvania / Appointed 1970 / Served to 2011

Malcolm Muir

Judge, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania

Appointed by President Richard M. Nixon in 1970 and confirmed by voice vote, Malcolm Muir was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. He earned a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1938. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Lived
1914–2011
Appointed by
Richard M. Nixon, 1970
Confirmed
by voice vote
Education
Lehigh 1935 · Harvard Law School 1938

Federal judicial service

YearCourtAppointed byVote
1970Middle District of PennsylvaniaNixon (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

Caseload & case types

In our data, Muir was assigned 3,731 district-court cases (1980–2011). Median time from filing to termination: 162 days across 3,731 closed cases.

Prisoner & habeas50%
Social Security12%
Contract8%
Personal-injury torts8%
Civil rights8%
Real property5%
Other8%

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 84 of Muir’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 74 were affirmed, 6 reversed or vacated, and 4 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, Muir authored 226 published opinions for the court (1971–2011). Most cited: United States v. Leta (56 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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

YearCaseCitationCited
1971United States v. Leta332 F. Supp. 135756
1973Skehan v. Board of Trustees of Bloomsburg State College353 F. Supp. 54242
1977Skehan v. Board of Trustees of Bloomsburg State College436 F. Supp. 65736
1976Kisko v. Penn Central Transportation Co.408 F. Supp. 98433
1974McAndrew v. Burnett374 F. Supp. 46033
1981Leedy v. Hartnett510 F. Supp. 112532
1981Funston v. United States513 F. Supp. 100024
1978Envirex, Inc. v. Ecological Recovery Associates, Inc.454 F. Supp. 132923
1998United States v. Hammer25 F. Supp. 2d 51821
1980Hahn v. United States493 F. Supp. 5720
1978Ross v. Pennsylvania State University445 F. Supp. 14718
1977Skehan v. Board of Trustees of Bloomsburg State College431 F. Supp. 137918
1973Walters v. Hiab Hydraulics, Inc.356 F. Supp. 100018
1972Hoffman v. A. B. Chance Co.339 F. Supp. 138518
1989United States v. Medeiros710 F. Supp. 10617

Showing the 15 most-cited of 226 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 Malcolm Muir?
President Richard M. Nixon appointed Malcolm Muir to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania in 1970.
Was Malcolm Muir appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
Malcolm Muir was appointed by President Richard M. Nixon, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Malcolm Muir's confirmation vote?
Malcolm Muir was confirmed by voice vote on October 8, 1970. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court was Malcolm Muir on?
Malcolm Muir was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.

Sources

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

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

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