Richard Owen
Appointed by President Richard M. Nixon in 1973 and confirmed by voice vote, Richard Owen was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. He earned a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1950. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Lived
- 1922–2015
- Appointed by
- Richard M. Nixon, 1973
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- Dartmouth College 1945 · Harvard Law School 1950
- Succeeded
- Edward Cochrane McLean
- Succeeded by
- Deborah A. Batts
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 | Southern District of New York succeeded Edward Cochrane McLean | 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
| Dartmouth College | A.B. | 1945 |
| Harvard Law School | LL.B. | 1950 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Owen was assigned 1,525 district-court cases (1976–2010). Median time from filing to termination: 588 days across 1,523 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 21 of Owen’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 17 were affirmed, 2 reversed or vacated, and 2 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, Owen authored 295 published opinions for the court (1974–2007). Most cited: Rosado v. Sullivan (960 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 | Rosado v. Sullivan | 805 F. Supp. 147 | 960 |
| 1980 | Patton Ex Rel. Lewis v. Dumpson | 498 F. Supp. 933 | 81 |
| 1991 | Ciresi v. Citicorp | 782 F. Supp. 819 | 42 |
| 1982 | Clarkson Co. Ltd. v. Shaheen | 533 F. Supp. 905 | 39 |
| 1980 | Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc. v. Nation Enterprises | 501 F. Supp. 848 | 37 |
| 1996 | Perry v. Burger King Corp. | 924 F. Supp. 548 | 35 |
| 1980 | Loeb v. New Times Communications Corp. | 497 F. Supp. 85 | 35 |
| 1979 | Forts v. Ward | 471 F. Supp. 1095 | 34 |
| 1991 | General American Communications Corp. v. Landsell (In Re General American Communications Corp.) | 130 B.R. 136 | 32 |
| 1986 | Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of Manville Forest Products Corp. v. Manville Forest Products Corp. (In Re Manville Forest Products Corp.) | 60 B.R. 403 | 31 |
| 1980 | In Re New York City Municipal Securities Litigation | 507 F. Supp. 169 | 29 |
| 1976 | Tonkonogy v. United States | 417 F. Supp. 78 | 29 |
| 1978 | Manas Y Pineiro v. Chase Manhattan Bank, N. A. | 443 F. Supp. 418 | 28 |
| 1992 | Lipton v. the Nature Co. | 781 F. Supp. 1032 | 27 |
| 1984 | Cordero v. Coughlin | 607 F. Supp. 9 | 26 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 295 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 Owen?
- President Richard M. Nixon appointed Richard Owen to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in 1973.
- Was Richard Owen appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- Richard Owen 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 Owen's confirmation vote?
- Richard Owen was confirmed by voice vote on December 13, 1973. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court was Richard Owen on?
- Richard Owen 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.
- FJC Biographical Directory
- Wikidata
- 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.
41 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).