Who appointed Richard Paul Matsch?

President Richard M. Nixon appointed Richard Paul Matsch to the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado in 1974.

Was Richard Paul Matsch appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?

Richard Paul Matsch was appointed by President Richard M. Nixon, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.

What was Richard Paul Matsch's confirmation vote?

Richard Paul Matsch was confirmed by voice vote on March 1, 1974. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.

District of Colorado / Appointed 1974 / Served to 2019

Richard Paul Matsch

Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado

Appointed by President Richard M. Nixon in 1974 and confirmed by voice vote, Richard Paul Matsch was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado. He earned a law degree from University of Michigan Law School in 1953. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Lived: 1930–2019
Appointed by: Richard M. Nixon, 1974
Confirmed: by voice vote
Education: University of Michigan 1951 · University of Michigan Law School 1953
Succeeded: Olin Hatfield Chilson
Succeeded by: Phillip S. Figa

Federal judicial service

Year	Court	Appointed by	Vote
1974	District of Colorado succeeded Olin Hatfield Chilson	Nixon (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

University of Michigan	A.B.	1951
University of Michigan Law School	J.D.	1953

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Matsch was assigned 6,780 district-court cases (1974–2019). Median time from filing to termination: 199 days across 6,749 closed cases.

Civil rights16%

Contract15%

Criminal15%

Prisoner & habeas13%

Personal-injury torts13%

Other federal statutes7%

Other21%

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 172 of Matsch’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 122 were affirmed, 23 reversed or vacated, and 27 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, Matsch authored 188 published opinions for the court (1974–2010). Most cited: United States v. McVeigh (61 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
1996	United States v. McVeigh	944 F. Supp. 1478	61
1976	Big O Tire Dealers, Inc. v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.	408 F. Supp. 1219	45
1999	George T. Carlson & Associates v. United States Bankruptcy Court (In Re Ingersoll)	238 B.R. 202	43
1975	Kerby v. Commodity Resources Incorporated	395 F. Supp. 786	37
1977	Hoover Ex Rel. Hoover v. Meiklejohn	430 F. Supp. 164	35
1989	United States v. Brady	710 F. Supp. 290	31
1986	Torwest DBC, Inc. v. Dick	628 F. Supp. 163	31
1986	Wilkenson v. Dept. of Interior of United States	634 F. Supp. 1265	29
1986	In Re Storage Technology Corp. Securities Lit.	630 F. Supp. 1072	29
1984	Hawkinson v. AH Robins Co., Inc.	595 F. Supp. 1290	29
1988	Colorado National Bank of Denver v. Ginco, Inc. (In Re Ginco, Inc.)	105 B.R. 620	28
1985	Consolidated Capital Income Trust v. Colter, Inc.	47 B.R. 1008	28
1978	Mountain States Legal Foundation v. Denver School District 1	459 F. Supp. 357	27
1983	Colorado Department of Social Services v. Department of Health & Human Services	558 F. Supp. 337	26
1974	Moore v. Schlesinger	384 F. Supp. 163	23

Showing the 15 most-cited of 188 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 Paul Matsch?: President Richard M. Nixon appointed Richard Paul Matsch to the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado in 1974.
Was Richard Paul Matsch appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?: Richard Paul Matsch was appointed by President Richard M. Nixon, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Richard Paul Matsch's confirmation vote?: Richard Paul Matsch was confirmed by voice vote on March 1, 1974. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court was Richard Paul Matsch on?: Richard Paul Matsch was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado.

Sources

Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

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