Richard Joseph Arcara
Appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 and confirmed by voice vote, Richard Joseph Arcara is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York. He earned a law degree from Villanova University School of Law in 1965. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Born
- 1940 · age 86
- Appointed by
- Ronald Reagan, 1988
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- St. Bonaventure 1962 · Villanova Law 1965
- Succeeded
- John Thomas Elfvin
- Succeeded by
- Lawrence Joseph Vilardo
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | Western District of New York succeeded John Thomas Elfvin | 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
| St. Bonaventure University | B.A. | 1962 |
| Villanova University School of Law | J.D. | 1965 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Arcara was assigned 7,589 district-court cases (1982–2026). Median time from filing to termination: 258 days across 7,509 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 203 of Arcara’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 160 were affirmed, 25 reversed or vacated, and 18 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, Arcara authored 212 published opinions for the court (1990–2011). Most cited: Camardo v. General Motors Hourly-Rate Employees Pension Plan (368 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Camardo v. General Motors Hourly-Rate Employees Pension Plan | 806 F. Supp. 380 | 368 |
| 2009 | Hubbard v. Kelley | 752 F. Supp. 2d 311 | 162 |
| 1997 | Fisher v. Goord | 981 F. Supp. 140 | 149 |
| 1992 | Pro-Choice Network v. Project Rescue Western New York | 799 F. Supp. 1417 | 50 |
| 2000 | OBH, Inc. v. Spotlight Magazine, Inc. | 86 F. Supp. 2d 176 | 40 |
| 2005 | Dreyer v. Ryder Automotive Carrier Group, Inc. | 367 F. Supp. 2d 413 | 27 |
| 2011 | Granite Music Corp. v. Center Street Smoke House, Inc. | 786 F. Supp. 2d 716 | 25 |
| 1995 | Bowen v. Doyle | 880 F. Supp. 99 | 25 |
| 2011 | Ceglia v. Zuckerberg | 772 F. Supp. 2d 453 | 23 |
| 2001 | United States v. Parker | 165 F. Supp. 2d 431 | 23 |
| 2001 | Bank of America v. Jarczyk | 268 B.R. 17 | 22 |
| 2009 | Hall v. Astrue | 677 F. Supp. 2d 617 | 21 |
| 2009 | Scarlett v. United States Department of Homeland Security Bureau of Immigration & Customs Enforcement | 632 F. Supp. 2d 214 | 18 |
| 2009 | D'ALESSANDRO v. Mukasey | 628 F. Supp. 2d 368 | 18 |
| 2003 | Pfohl Brothers Landfill Site Steering Committee v. Allied Waste Sys., Inc. | 255 F. Supp. 2d 134 | 17 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 212 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 Richard Joseph Arcara?
- President Ronald Reagan appointed Richard Joseph Arcara to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York in 1988.
- Was Richard Joseph Arcara appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- Richard Joseph Arcara was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was Richard Joseph Arcara's confirmation vote?
- Richard Joseph Arcara was confirmed by voice vote on February 19, 1988. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court is Richard Joseph Arcara on?
- Richard Joseph Arcara is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York.
Sources
Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.
- FJC Biographical Directory
- Wikidata
- Portrait: Administrative Office of the United States Courts (The Third Branch newsletter) (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.
38 years on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).