Martha Alicia Vázquez
Appointed by President William J. Clinton in 1993 and confirmed by voice vote, Martha Alicia Vázquez is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico. She earned a law degree from Notre Dame Law School in 1978. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Born
- 1953 · age 73
- Appointed by
- William J. Clinton, 1993
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- University of Notre Dame 1975 · Notre Dame Law School 1978
- Succeeded
- Santiago E. Campos
- Succeeded by
- David Herrera Urias
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | District of New Mexico succeeded Santiago E. Campos | 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 Notre Dame | B.A. | 1975 |
| Notre Dame Law School | J.D. | 1978 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Vázquez was assigned 3,348 district-court cases (1986–2025). Median time from filing to termination: 256 days across 3,290 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.
On appeal
Of 117 of Vázquez’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 98 were affirmed, 14 reversed or vacated, and 5 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, Vázquez authored 83 published opinions for the court (1994–2011). Most cited: Yue Yu v. Brown (77 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Yue Yu v. Brown | 36 F. Supp. 2d 922 | 77 |
| 1995 | Russey v. Rankin | 911 F. Supp. 1449 | 27 |
| 2000 | Dimezza v. First USA Bank, Inc. | 103 F. Supp. 2d 1296 | 26 |
| 2000 | Lewis v. New Mexico Department of Health | 94 F. Supp. 2d 1217 | 25 |
| 1995 | United States v. Galbreth | 908 F. Supp. 877 | 23 |
| 1996 | Pueblo of Santa Ana v. Kelly | 932 F. Supp. 1284 | 22 |
| 1999 | Cheromiah v. United States | 55 F. Supp. 2d 1295 | 17 |
| 2004 | Murphy v. Bitsoih | 320 F. Supp. 2d 1174 | 16 |
| 1998 | United States v. Bahe | 40 F. Supp. 2d 1302 | 15 |
| 1994 | United States v. Florez | 871 F. Supp. 1411 | 14 |
| 2001 | Dumais v. American Golf Corp. | 150 F. Supp. 2d 1182 | 13 |
| 1999 | Nieto v. Kapoor | 61 F. Supp. 2d 1177 | 13 |
| 1996 | McCanna v. Burke | 197 B.R. 333 | 13 |
| 2002 | In Re Sun Healthcare Group, Inc. Securities Litigation | 181 F. Supp. 2d 1283 | 12 |
| 2000 | Lee v. New Mexico State University Board of Regents | 102 F. Supp. 2d 1265 | 12 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 83 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 Martha Alicia Vázquez?
- President William J. Clinton appointed Martha Alicia Vázquez to the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico in 1993.
- Was Martha Alicia Vázquez appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- Martha Alicia Vázquez was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was Martha Alicia Vázquez's confirmation vote?
- Martha Alicia Vázquez was confirmed by voice vote on September 30, 1993. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court is Martha Alicia Vázquez on?
- Martha Alicia Vázquez is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico.
Sources
Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.
- FJC Biographical Directory
- Wikidata
- Portrait: NMJURIST (CC BY-SA 4.0), 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.
32 years on the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).