Who appointed Mark W. Bennett?

President William J. Clinton appointed Mark W. Bennett to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa in 1994.

Was Mark W. Bennett appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?

Mark W. Bennett was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.

What was Mark W. Bennett's confirmation vote?

Mark W. Bennett was confirmed by voice vote on August 9, 1994. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.

Northern District of Iowa / Appointed 1994 / Served to 2019

Mark W. Bennett

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

Appointed by President William J. Clinton in 1994 and confirmed by voice vote, Mark W. Bennett was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa. He earned a law degree from Drake University Law School in 1975. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Born: 1950 · age 76
Appointed by: William J. Clinton, 1994
Confirmed: by voice vote
Education: Gustavus Adolphus College 1972 · Drake Law School 1975
Succeeded: Donald Eugene O'Brien
Succeeded by: Leonard Terry Strand

Federal judicial service

Year	Court	Appointed by	Vote
1994	Northern District of Iowa succeeded Donald Eugene O'Brien	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

Gustavus Adolphus College	B.A.	1972
Drake University Law School	J.D.	1975

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Bennett was assigned 3,482 district-court cases (1985–2018). Median time from filing to termination: 217 days across 3,481 closed cases.

Prisoner & habeas35%

Civil rights16%

Property torts9%

Contract9%

Personal-injury torts8%

Other federal statutes5%

Other19%

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 367 of Bennett’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 321 were affirmed, 29 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, Bennett authored 617 published opinions for the court (1994–2011). Most cited: Tralon Corp. v. Cedarapids, Inc. (124 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
1997	Tralon Corp. v. Cedarapids, Inc.	966 F. Supp. 812	124
1997	Rural Water System 1 v. City of Sioux Center	967 F. Supp. 1483	119
1997	Lockhart v. Cedar Rapids Community School District	963 F. Supp. 805	99
1997	Laird v. Stilwill	969 F. Supp. 1167	97
1997	Dirks v. J.C. Robinson Seed Co.	980 F. Supp. 1303	91
1997	Security State Bank v. Firstar Bank Milwaukee, N.A.	965 F. Supp. 1237	89
1998	Swanson v. Van Otterloo	993 F. Supp. 1224	86
2008	Bouaphakeo v. Tyson Foods, Inc.	564 F. Supp. 2d 870	77
1995	Hutchinson v. United Parcel Service, Inc.	883 F. Supp. 379	63
1995	Curtis 1000, Inc. v. Youngblade	878 F. Supp. 1224	55
1995	HEATHER K. BY ANITA K. v. City of Mallard, Iowa	887 F. Supp. 1249	50
1995	De Wit v. Firstar Corp.	879 F. Supp. 947	50
1999	Doe v. Hartz	52 F. Supp. 2d 1027	49
1996	Terra International, Inc. v. Mississippi Chemical Corp.	922 F. Supp. 1334	47
1995	Laird v. Ramirez	884 F. Supp. 1265	47

Showing the 15 most-cited of 617 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 Mark W. Bennett?: President William J. Clinton appointed Mark W. Bennett to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa in 1994.
Was Mark W. Bennett appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?: Mark W. Bennett was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Mark W. Bennett's confirmation vote?: Mark W. Bennett was confirmed by voice vote on August 9, 1994. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court was Mark W. Bennett on?: Mark W. Bennett was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa.

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.

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