Michael Adrian Ponsor
Appointed by President William J. Clinton in 1994 and confirmed by voice vote, Michael Adrian Ponsor is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. He earned a law degree from Yale Law School in 1975. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Born
- 1946 · age 80
- Appointed by
- William J. Clinton, 1994
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- Harvard 1969 · Yale Law School 1975
- Succeeded
- Frank Harlan Freedman
- Succeeded by
- Mark Gerald Mastroianni
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | District of Massachusetts succeeded Frank Harlan Freedman | 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
| Harvard University | B.A. | 1969 |
| Yale Law School | J.D. | 1975 |
| University of Oxford | M.A. | 1979 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Ponsor was assigned 3,551 district-court cases (1981–2022). Median time from filing to termination: 313 days across 3,536 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 161 of Ponsor’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 141 were affirmed, 14 reversed or vacated, and 6 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, Ponsor authored 455 published opinions for the court (1992–2011). Most cited: Meara v. Bennett (38 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Meara v. Bennett | 27 F. Supp. 2d 288 | 38 |
| 2011 | Connor B. Ex Rel. Vigurs v. Patrick | 771 F. Supp. 2d 142 | 35 |
| 2003 | Iacaboni v. United States | 251 F. Supp. 2d 1015 | 35 |
| 2006 | Brumbaugh v. Wave Systems Corp. | 416 F. Supp. 2d 239 | 33 |
| 2008 | The Scuderi Group, LLC v. Lgd Technology, LLC | 575 F. Supp. 2d 312 | 31 |
| 2002 | Bennett v. City of Holyoke | 230 F. Supp. 2d 207 | 30 |
| 1999 | Fairview MacHine & Tool Co. v. Oakbrook International, Inc. | 56 F. Supp. 2d 134 | 29 |
| 1994 | Jillson v. Vermont Log Buildings, Inc. | 857 F. Supp. 985 | 27 |
| 2006 | Partelow v. Massachusetts | 442 F. Supp. 2d 41 | 24 |
| 1999 | Lewis v. General Electric Co. | 37 F. Supp. 2d 55 | 24 |
| 1998 | I v. Services of America, Inc. v. Inn Development & Management, Inc. | 7 F. Supp. 2d 79 | 22 |
| 1995 | White v. Commissioner | 899 F. Supp. 767 | 22 |
| 2008 | Zimmermann v. Cambridge Credit Counseling Corp. | 529 F. Supp. 2d 254 | 20 |
| 1997 | Dedis v. Chater | 956 F. Supp. 45 | 20 |
| 2005 | National Nonwovens, Inc. v. Consumer Products Enterprises, Inc. | 397 F. Supp. 2d 245 | 19 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 455 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 Adrian Ponsor?
- President William J. Clinton appointed Michael Adrian Ponsor to the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts in 1994.
- Was Michael Adrian Ponsor appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- Michael Adrian Ponsor was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was Michael Adrian Ponsor's confirmation vote?
- Michael Adrian Ponsor was confirmed by voice vote on February 10, 1994. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court is Michael Adrian Ponsor on?
- Michael Adrian Ponsor is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
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.
32 years on the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).