Who appointed Patricia Anne Gaughan?

President William J. Clinton appointed Patricia Anne Gaughan to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio in 1995.

Was Patricia Anne Gaughan appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?

Patricia Anne Gaughan was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.

What was Patricia Anne Gaughan's confirmation vote?

Patricia Anne Gaughan was confirmed by voice vote on December 22, 1995. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.

Northern District of Ohio / Appointed 1995 / Senior status since 2023

Patricia Anne Gaughan

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

Appointed by President William J. Clinton in 1995 and confirmed by voice vote, Patricia Anne Gaughan is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. She earned a law degree from Notre Dame Law School in 1978. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Born: 1953 · age 73
Appointed by: William J. Clinton, 1995
Confirmed: by voice vote
Education: St. Mary's College, Notre Dame, Indiana 1975 · Notre Dame Law School 1978
Succeeded: Ann Aldrich

Federal judicial service

Year	Court	Appointed by	Vote
1995	Northern District of Ohio succeeded Ann Aldrich	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

St. Mary's College, Notre Dame, Indiana	B.A.	1975
Notre Dame Law School	J.D.	1978

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Gaughan was assigned 5,135 district-court cases (1987–2026). Median time from filing to termination: 171 days across 4,950 closed cases.

Civil rights16%

Contract15%

Prisoner & habeas12%

Labor & ERISA11%

Other federal statutes9%

Personal-injury torts8%

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 397 of Gaughan’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 333 were affirmed, 38 reversed or vacated, and 26 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, Gaughan authored 58 published opinions for the court (1997–2011). Most cited: United States v. Harchar (21 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
2007	United States v. Harchar	371 B.R. 254	21
2010	Ward v. County of Cuyahoga	721 F. Supp. 2d 677	15
2006	Liedtke v. Frank	437 F. Supp. 2d 696	15
2006	Elliott Co. v. Liberty Mutual Insurance	434 F. Supp. 2d 483	14
2008	Ashtabula River Corp. Group II v. Conrail, Inc.	549 F. Supp. 2d 981	13
2004	Office Max, Inc. v. United States	309 F. Supp. 2d 984	13
2006	Jerman v. Carlisle, McNellie, Rini, Kramer & Ulrich	464 F. Supp. 2d 720	11
2011	Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Kaplan Higher Education Corp.	790 F. Supp. 2d 619	9
2007	Jerman v. CARLISLE, McNELLIE, RINI, KRAMER	502 F. Supp. 2d 686	9
1999	Chamberlain v. American Tobacco Co., Inc.	70 F. Supp. 2d 788	9
1997	Finley v. Higbee Co.	1 F. Supp. 2d 701	9
2005	Patnik v. CITICORP BANK TRUST FSB.	412 F. Supp. 2d 753	8
2005	McClain's Market v. United States	411 F. Supp. 2d 772	7
2003	City of Olmsted Falls v. United States Environmental Protection Agency	266 F. Supp. 2d 718	7
2000	ETW Corp. v. Jireh Publishing, Inc.	99 F. Supp. 2d 829	7

Showing the 15 most-cited of 58 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 Patricia Anne Gaughan?: President William J. Clinton appointed Patricia Anne Gaughan to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio in 1995.
Was Patricia Anne Gaughan appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?: Patricia Anne Gaughan was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Patricia Anne Gaughan's confirmation vote?: Patricia Anne Gaughan was confirmed by voice vote on December 22, 1995. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court is Patricia Anne Gaughan on?: Patricia Anne Gaughan is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio.

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.

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