Marvin E. Aspen
Appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1979 and confirmed by voice vote, Marvin E. Aspen is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. He earned a law degree from Northwestern University School of Law (now Pritzker School of Law) in 1958. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Born
- 1934 · age 92
- Appointed by
- Jimmy Carter, 1979
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- Northwestern 1956 · Northwestern Law (now Pritzker School of Law) 1958
- Succeeded by
- Samuel Der-Yeghiayan
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 | Northern District of Illinois | 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
| Northwestern University | B.S. | 1956 |
| Northwestern University School of Law (now Pritzker School of Law) | J.D. | 1958 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Aspen was assigned 5,222 district-court cases (1966–2024). Median time from filing to termination: 146 days across 5,215 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 78 of Aspen’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 66 were affirmed, 8 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, Aspen authored 839 published opinions for the court (1933–2011). Most cited: Edward Hines Lumber Co. v. Vulcan Materials Co. (74 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | Edward Hines Lumber Co. v. Vulcan Materials Co. | 685 F. Supp. 651 | 74 |
| 1988 | Balabanos v. North American Investment Group, Ltd. | 708 F. Supp. 1488 | 66 |
| 1993 | Allen v. City of Chicago | 828 F. Supp. 543 | 65 |
| 1992 | United States Ex Rel. Free v. Peters | 806 F. Supp. 705 | 54 |
| 1983 | D & G Enterprises v. Continental Illinois National Bank & Trust Co. | 574 F. Supp. 263 | 51 |
| 1997 | City of Chicago v. Fisher (In Re Fisher) | 203 B.R. 958 | 45 |
| 1981 | Issen v. GSC Enterprises., Inc. | 508 F. Supp. 1278 | 45 |
| 1993 | Hardin v. Harshbarger | 814 F. Supp. 703 | 39 |
| 1985 | Stackhouse v. DeSitter | 620 F. Supp. 208 | 39 |
| 1982 | McIntosh v. Magna Systems, Inc. | 539 F. Supp. 1185 | 38 |
| 1980 | National Acceptance Co. of America v. Wechsler | 489 F. Supp. 642 | 38 |
| 1992 | Oxford Organisation, Ltd. v. Peterson (In Re Stotler & Co.) | 144 B.R. 385 | 37 |
| 1995 | Freemon v. Foley | 911 F. Supp. 326 | 36 |
| 1985 | Gianakas v. Exchange National Bank of Chicago (In Re Gianakas) | 56 B.R. 747 | 34 |
| 1983 | Swanson v. Wabash, Inc. | 577 F. Supp. 1308 | 34 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 839 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 Marvin E. Aspen?
- President Jimmy Carter appointed Marvin E. Aspen to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in 1979.
- Was Marvin E. Aspen appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- Marvin E. Aspen was appointed by President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was Marvin E. Aspen's confirmation vote?
- Marvin E. Aspen was confirmed by voice vote on July 23, 1979. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court is Marvin E. Aspen on?
- Marvin E. Aspen is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
Sources
Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.
- FJC Biographical Directory
- Wikidata
- Portrait: Administrative Office of the United States Courts (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.
47 years on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).