Who appointed Michael B. Mukasey?

President Ronald Reagan appointed Michael B. Mukasey to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in 1987.

Was Michael B. Mukasey appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?

Michael B. Mukasey was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.

What was Michael B. Mukasey's confirmation vote?

Michael B. Mukasey was confirmed by voice vote on November 6, 1987. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.

Southern District of New York / Appointed 1987 / Served to 2006

Michael B. Mukasey

Judge, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York

Appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1987 and confirmed by voice vote, Michael B. Mukasey was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. He earned a law degree from Yale Law School in 1967. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Born: 1941 · age 85
Appointed by: Ronald Reagan, 1987
Confirmed: by voice vote
Education: Columbia 1963 · Yale Law School 1967
Succeeded: Abraham David Sofaer
Succeeded by: Richard Joseph Sullivan

Federal judicial service

Year	Court	Appointed by	Vote
1987	Southern District of New York succeeded Abraham David Sofaer	Reagan (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

Columbia University	A.B.	1963
Yale Law School	LL.B.	1967

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Mukasey was assigned 7,484 district-court cases (1981–2006). Median time from filing to termination: 78 days across 7,483 closed cases.

Prisoner & habeas42%

Civil rights16%

Contract15%

Personal-injury torts6%

Labor & ERISA5%

Intellectual property4%

Other12%

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 70 of Mukasey’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 59 were affirmed, 6 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, Mukasey authored 326 published opinions for the court (1988–2006). Most cited: Kappel v. Comfort (104 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
1996	Kappel v. Comfort	914 F. Supp. 1056	104
1991	Pizarro v. Bartlett	776 F. Supp. 815	90
1992	Official Committee of Subordinated Bondholders v. Integrated Resources, Inc. (In Re Integrated Resources, Inc.)	147 B.R. 650	84
1998	Beeson v. Fishkill Correctional Facility	28 F. Supp. 2d 884	77
1996	Kolbeck v. LIT America, Inc.	939 F. Supp. 240	74
1996	Department of Economic Development v. Arthur Andersen & Co.	924 F. Supp. 449	72
1997	Farrell Lines Inc. v. Columbus Cello-Poly Corp.	32 F. Supp. 2d 118	61
1996	Aviall, Inc. v. Ryder System, Inc.	913 F. Supp. 826	60
1993	Re-Alco Industries, Inc. v. National Center for Health Education, Inc.	812 F. Supp. 387	59
1990	Weight Watchers International, Inc. v. Stouffer Corp.	744 F. Supp. 1259	59
1996	Kolbeck v. LIT America, Inc.	923 F. Supp. 557	57
1991	Bennett Silvershein Associates v. Furman	776 F. Supp. 800	56
1996	Architectronics, Inc. v. Control Systems, Inc.	935 F. Supp. 425	54
1998	Solow v. Stone	994 F. Supp. 173	52
1996	LNC Investments, Inc. v. First Fidelity Bank, National Ass'n	935 F. Supp. 1333	48

Showing the 15 most-cited of 326 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 B. Mukasey?: President Ronald Reagan appointed Michael B. Mukasey to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in 1987.
Was Michael B. Mukasey appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?: Michael B. Mukasey was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Michael B. Mukasey's confirmation vote?: Michael B. Mukasey was confirmed by voice vote on November 6, 1987. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court was Michael B. Mukasey on?: Michael B. Mukasey was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

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.

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