Who appointed Matthew F. Kennelly?

President William J. Clinton appointed Matthew F. Kennelly to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in 1999.

Was Matthew F. Kennelly appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?

Matthew F. Kennelly was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.

What was Matthew F. Kennelly's confirmation vote?

Matthew F. Kennelly was confirmed by voice vote on April 15, 1999. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.

Northern District of Illinois / Appointed 1999 / Senior status since 2021

Matthew F. Kennelly

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

Appointed by President William J. Clinton in 1999 and confirmed by voice vote, Matthew F. Kennelly is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. He earned a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1981. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Born: 1956 · age 70
Appointed by: William J. Clinton, 1999
Confirmed: by voice vote
Education: University of Notre Dame 1978 · Harvard Law School 1981
Succeeded: Paul Edward Plunkett
Succeeded by: Nancy Lee Maldonado

Federal judicial service

Year	Court	Appointed by	Vote
1999	Northern District of Illinois succeeded Paul Edward Plunkett	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.	1978
Harvard Law School	J.D.	1981

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Kennelly was assigned 17,071 district-court cases (1987–2026). Median time from filing to termination: 505 days across 16,084 closed cases.

Personal-injury torts49%

Other civil matters11%

Civil rights7%

Other federal statutes7%

Labor & ERISA6%

Prisoner & habeas5%

Other15%

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 458 of Kennelly’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 369 were affirmed, 66 reversed or vacated, and 23 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, Kennelly authored 155 published opinions for the court (1999–2012). Most cited: Russell v. Illinois Bell Telephone Co. (48 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
2008	Russell v. Illinois Bell Telephone Co.	575 F. Supp. 2d 930	48
2003	Whisby-Myers v. Kiekenapp	293 F. Supp. 2d 845	45
2006	Doe v. Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois	429 F. Supp. 2d 930	40
2009	Motorola, Inc. v. Lemko Corporation	609 F. Supp. 2d 760	37
2007	Heckler v. DK FUNDING, LLC	502 F. Supp. 2d 777	31
1999	Gray-Mapp v. Sherman	100 F. Supp. 2d 810	29
2005	Skelton v. American Intercontinental University Online	382 F. Supp. 2d 1068	28
2000	Medina v. City of Chicago	100 F. Supp. 2d 893	28
2010	Russell v. Illinois Bell Telephone Co., Inc.	721 F. Supp. 2d 804	26
2001	Phillips v. Associates Home Equity Services, Inc.	179 F. Supp. 2d 840	25
2008	Chagolla v. City of Chicago	529 F. Supp. 2d 941	24
2003	Carroccia v. Anderson	249 F. Supp. 2d 1016	22
2005	Entertainment Software Ass'n v. Blagojevich	404 F. Supp. 2d 1051	17
2002	Fairbanks Capital Corp. v. Jenkins	225 F. Supp. 2d 910	17
2007	United States Ex Rel. Kennedy v. Aventis Pharmaceuticals, Inc.	512 F. Supp. 2d 1158	16

Showing the 15 most-cited of 155 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 Matthew F. Kennelly?: President William J. Clinton appointed Matthew F. Kennelly to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in 1999.
Was Matthew F. Kennelly appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?: Matthew F. Kennelly was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Matthew F. Kennelly's confirmation vote?: Matthew F. Kennelly was confirmed by voice vote on April 15, 1999. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court is Matthew F. Kennelly on?: Matthew F. Kennelly 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.

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

See something wrong? Report an error. Fixes are logged in the corrections log.

27 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).