Peter Jo Messitte
Appointed by President William J. Clinton in 1993 and confirmed by voice vote, Peter Jo Messitte was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. He earned a law degree from University of Chicago Law School in 1966. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Lived
- 1941–2025
- Appointed by
- William J. Clinton, 1993
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- Amherst College 1963 · University of Chicago Law School 1966
- Succeeded
- Joseph Clemens Howard
- Succeeded by
- George Levi Russell III
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | District of Maryland succeeded Joseph Clemens Howard | 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
| Amherst College | B.A. | 1963 |
| University of Chicago Law School | J.D. | 1966 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Messitte was assigned 6,747 district-court cases (1981–2024). Median time from filing to termination: 188 days across 6,736 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 387 of Messitte’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 342 were affirmed, 24 reversed or vacated, and 21 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, Messitte authored 162 published opinions for the court (1994–2011). Most cited: Dicken v. United States (245 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Dicken v. United States | 862 F. Supp. 91 | 245 |
| 2005 | Davis v. Thompson | 367 F. Supp. 2d 792 | 231 |
| 1995 | CVI/Beta Ventures, Inc. v. Custom Optical Frames, Inc. | 896 F. Supp. 505 | 207 |
| 1995 | In Re Medimmune, Inc. Securities Litigation | 873 F. Supp. 953 | 61 |
| 2010 | Syrja v. Westat, Inc. | 756 F. Supp. 2d 682 | 60 |
| 1996 | Cape v. Von Maur | 932 F. Supp. 124 | 45 |
| 2007 | Johnson v. Wheeler | 492 F. Supp. 2d 492 | 38 |
| 2010 | Al-Quraishi v. Nakhla | 728 F. Supp. 2d 702 | 33 |
| 2010 | Higgs v. United States | 711 F. Supp. 2d 479 | 33 |
| 2005 | Senftle v. Landau | 390 F. Supp. 2d 463 | 31 |
| 2000 | Commodity Futures Trading Commission v. Noble Wealth Data Information Services, Inc. | 90 F. Supp. 2d 676 | 29 |
| 1998 | Goldenberg v. Marriott PLP Corp. | 33 F. Supp. 2d 434 | 28 |
| 1996 | Camden v. State of Maryland | 910 F. Supp. 1115 | 28 |
| 2006 | Belfiore v. Summit Federal Credit Union | 452 F. Supp. 2d 629 | 27 |
| 1995 | Hardnett v. Duquesne University | 897 F. Supp. 920 | 26 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 162 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 Jo Messitte?
- President William J. Clinton appointed Peter Jo Messitte to the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland in 1993.
- Was Peter Jo Messitte appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- Peter Jo Messitte was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was Peter Jo Messitte's confirmation vote?
- Peter Jo Messitte was confirmed by voice vote on October 18, 1993. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court was Peter Jo Messitte on?
- Peter Jo Messitte was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.
Sources
Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.
- FJC Biographical Directory
- Wikidata
- Portrait: United States District Court for the District of Maryland (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.
31 years on the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).