Central District of Illinois / Appointed 1982 / Senior status since 2009

Michael Martin Mihm

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

Appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1982 and confirmed by voice vote, Michael Martin Mihm is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois. He earned a law degree from St. Louis University School of Law in 1967. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Born
1943 · age 83
Appointed by
Ronald Reagan, 1982
Confirmed
by voice vote
Education
Loras College 1964 · St. Louis Law 1967

Federal judicial service

YearCourtAppointed byVote
1982Central District of IllinoisReagan (R)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

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Mihm was assigned 6,599 district-court cases (1980–2026). Median time from filing to termination: 204 days across 6,211 closed cases.

Prisoner & habeas30%
Civil rights15%
Other civil matters11%
Contract9%
Labor & ERISA8%
Personal-injury torts6%
Other22%

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 150 of Mihm’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 114 were affirmed, 25 reversed or vacated, and 11 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, Mihm authored 228 published opinions for the court (1982–2011). Most cited: Iowa Wireless Servs. LP v. City of Moline, Ill. (34 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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

Showing the 15 most-cited of 228 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 Michael Martin Mihm?
President Ronald Reagan appointed Michael Martin Mihm to the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois in 1982.
Was Michael Martin Mihm appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
Michael Martin Mihm was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Michael Martin Mihm's confirmation vote?
Michael Martin Mihm was confirmed by voice vote on August 5, 1982. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court is Michael Martin Mihm on?
Michael Martin Mihm is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois.

Sources

Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

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