District of New Jersey / Appointed 1987 / Served to 2002

Nicholas H. Politan

Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey

Appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1987 and confirmed by voice vote, Nicholas H. Politan was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey. He earned a law degree from Rutgers School of Law -- Newark in 1960. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Lived
1935–2012
Appointed by
Ronald Reagan, 1987
Confirmed
by voice vote
Education
Rutgers 1957 · Rutgers Law -- Newark 1960
Succeeded by
Freda L. Wolfson

Federal judicial service

YearCourtAppointed byVote
1987District of New JerseyReagan (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, Politan was assigned 4,092 district-court cases (1982–2001). Median time from filing to termination: 200 days across 4,091 closed cases.

Contract24%
Personal-injury torts14%
Civil rights13%
Prisoner & habeas12%
Labor & ERISA10%
Other federal statutes7%
Other21%

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.

In our data, Politan authored 81 published opinions for the court (1988–2001). Most cited: Fregara v. Jet Aviation Business Jets (50 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 81 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 Nicholas H. Politan?
President Ronald Reagan appointed Nicholas H. Politan to the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey in 1987.
Was Nicholas H. Politan appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
Nicholas H. Politan was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Nicholas H. Politan's confirmation vote?
Nicholas H. Politan was confirmed by voice vote on November 6, 1987. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court was Nicholas H. Politan on?
Nicholas H. Politan was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.

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.

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