Who appointed Maxine M. Chesney?

President William J. Clinton appointed Maxine M. Chesney to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in 1995.

Was Maxine M. Chesney appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?

Maxine M. Chesney was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.

What was Maxine M. Chesney's confirmation vote?

Maxine M. Chesney was confirmed by voice vote on May 8, 1995. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.

Northern District of California / Appointed 1995 / Senior status since 2009

Maxine M. Chesney

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

Appointed by President William J. Clinton in 1995 and confirmed by voice vote, Maxine M. Chesney is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. She earned a law degree from University of California, Berkeley, School of Law in 1967. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Born: 1942 · age 84
Appointed by: William J. Clinton, 1995
Confirmed: by voice vote
Education: University of California, Berkeley 1964 · University of California, Berkeley, Law 1967
Succeeded: John P. Vukasin Jr.
Succeeded by: Richard G. Seeborg

Federal judicial service

Year	Court	Appointed by	Vote
1995	Northern District of California succeeded John P. Vukasin Jr.	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 California, Berkeley	B.A.	1964
University of California, Berkeley, School of Law	J.D.	1967

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Chesney was assigned 5,270 district-court cases (1983–2026). Median time from filing to termination: 206 days across 5,102 closed cases.

Prisoner & habeas18%

Civil rights16%

Contract10%

Other federal statutes9%

Other civil matters9%

Personal-injury torts9%

Other29%

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 194 of Chesney’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 156 were affirmed, 20 reversed or vacated, and 18 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, Chesney authored 31 published opinions for the court (1997–2011). Most cited: United States v. Chevrontexoco Corp. (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
2002	United States v. Chevrontexoco Corp.	241 F. Supp. 2d 1065	77
2001	Kourteva v. Immigration & Naturalization Service	151 F. Supp. 2d 1126	39
2010	Smith v. Ford Motor Co.	749 F. Supp. 2d 980	38
1999	Nicosia v. De Rooy	72 F. Supp. 2d 1093	27
2005	Highfields Capital Management L.P. v. Doe	385 F. Supp. 2d 969	24
2002	Sierra Club v. Bosworth	199 F. Supp. 2d 971	15
2006	Pacific Bell Telephone Co. v. City of Walnut Creek	428 F. Supp. 2d 1037	14
2005	Snyder v. ENTERPRISE RENT-A-CAR, SAN LFRANCISCO	392 F. Supp. 2d 1116	14
1999	Lasley v. New England Variable Life Insurance	126 F. Supp. 2d 1236	13
2002	Daly v. Viacom, Inc.	238 F. Supp. 2d 1118	12
2006	DEPUY v. Weltman, Wienberg & Reis Co.	442 F. Supp. 2d 822	11
2001	California v. Sutter Health System	130 F. Supp. 2d 1109	11
2003	Alperin v. Vatican Bank	242 F. Supp. 2d 686	9
2010	Wong v. HSBC Mortgage Corp. (USA)	749 F. Supp. 2d 1009	8
2001	Spear v. Schafler (In Re Schafler)	263 B.R. 296	8

Showing the 15 most-cited of 31 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 Maxine M. Chesney?: President William J. Clinton appointed Maxine M. Chesney to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in 1995.
Was Maxine M. Chesney appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?: Maxine M. Chesney was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Maxine M. Chesney's confirmation vote?: Maxine M. Chesney was confirmed by voice vote on May 8, 1995. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court is Maxine M. Chesney on?: Maxine M. Chesney is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

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.

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