Patti B. Saris
Appointed by President William J. Clinton in 1993 and confirmed by voice vote, Patti B. Saris is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. She earned a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1976. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Born
- 1951 · age 75
- Appointed by
- William J. Clinton, 1993
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- Radcliffe College 1973 · Harvard Law School 1976
- Succeeded
- Walter Jay Skinner
- Succeeded by
- Brian Edward Murphy
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | District of Massachusetts succeeded Walter Jay Skinner | 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
| Radcliffe College | B.A. | 1973 |
| Harvard Law School | J.D. | 1976 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Saris was assigned 8,351 district-court cases (1978–2026). Median time from filing to termination: 215 days across 5,838 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 297 of Saris’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 228 were affirmed, 40 reversed or vacated, and 29 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, Saris authored 342 published opinions for the court (1994–2011). Most cited: Guckenberger v. Boston University (112 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Guckenberger v. Boston University | 957 F. Supp. 306 | 112 |
| 2006 | United States v. Monteiro | 407 F. Supp. 2d 351 | 72 |
| 2001 | United States Ex Rel. Franklin v. Parke-Davis, Division of Warner-Lambert Co. | 147 F. Supp. 2d 39 | 58 |
| 1998 | Guckenberger v. Boston University | 8 F. Supp. 2d 91 | 50 |
| 2001 | In Re Raytheon Securities Litigation | 157 F. Supp. 2d 131 | 41 |
| 1997 | Guckenberger v. Boston University | 974 F. Supp. 106 | 40 |
| 2005 | Massachusetts v. Mylan Laboratories | 357 F. Supp. 2d 314 | 39 |
| 2001 | Pariseau v. City of Brockton | 135 F. Supp. 2d 257 | 38 |
| 2000 | Beal Bank, SSB v. Waters Edge Limited Partnership | 248 B.R. 668 | 38 |
| 2000 | Raytheon Co. v. Continental Casualty Co. | 123 F. Supp. 2d 22 | 35 |
| 2000 | United States Ex Rel. Walsh v. Eastman Kodak Co. | 98 F. Supp. 2d 141 | 35 |
| 2011 | Morris v. BAC Home Loans Servicing, L.P. | 775 F. Supp. 2d 255 | 34 |
| 1998 | George Hyman Construction Co. v. Gateman | 16 F. Supp. 2d 129 | 34 |
| 2004 | Gibbs v. SLM Corp. | 336 F. Supp. 2d 1 | 33 |
| 2001 | Andrews-Clarke v. Lucent Technologies, Inc. | 157 F. Supp. 2d 93 | 33 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 342 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 Patti B. Saris?
- President William J. Clinton appointed Patti B. Saris to the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts in 1993.
- Was Patti B. Saris appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- Patti B. Saris was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was Patti B. Saris's confirmation vote?
- Patti B. Saris was confirmed by voice vote on November 20, 1993. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court is Patti B. Saris on?
- Patti B. Saris 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).