Southern District of New York / Appointed 1984 / Served to 2013

Peter Keeton Leisure

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

Appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1984 and confirmed by voice vote, Peter Keeton Leisure was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. He earned a law degree from University of Virginia School of Law in 1958. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Lived
1929–2013
Appointed by
Ronald Reagan, 1984
Confirmed
by voice vote
Education
Yale 1952 · University of Virginia Law 1958

Federal judicial service

YearCourtAppointed byVote
1984Southern District of New York
succeeded Milton Pollack
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

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Leisure was assigned 2,947 district-court cases (1977–2009). Median time from filing to termination: 310 days across 2,947 closed cases.

Contract36%
Personal-injury torts14%
Prisoner & habeas10%
Labor & ERISA9%
Civil rights8%
Intellectual property7%
Other17%

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 24 of Leisure’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 16 were affirmed, 1 reversed or vacated, and 7 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, Leisure authored 571 published opinions for the court (1984–2010). Most cited: DeLuca v. AccessIT Group, Inc. (447 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 571 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 Peter Keeton Leisure?
President Ronald Reagan appointed Peter Keeton Leisure to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in 1984.
Was Peter Keeton Leisure appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
Peter Keeton Leisure was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Peter Keeton Leisure's confirmation vote?
Peter Keeton Leisure was confirmed by voice vote on June 15, 1984. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court was Peter Keeton Leisure on?
Peter Keeton Leisure 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

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29 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).