Richard W. Roberts
Appointed by President William J. Clinton in 1998 and confirmed by voice vote, Richard W. Roberts is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. He earned a law degree from Columbia Law School in 1978. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Born
- 1953 · age 73
- Appointed by
- William J. Clinton, 1998
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- Vassar College 1974 · Columbia Law School 1978
- Succeeded
- Charles Robert Richey
- Succeeded by
- Carl John Nichols
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | District of Columbia succeeded Charles Robert Richey | 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
| Vassar College | A.B. | 1974 |
| School for International Training (now SIT Graduate Institute) | M.I.A. | 1975 |
| Columbia Law School | J.D. | 1978 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Roberts was assigned 1,513 district-court cases (1997–2015). Median time from filing to termination: 256 days across 1,501 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 114 of Roberts’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 90 were affirmed, 16 reversed or vacated, and 8 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, Roberts authored 839 published opinions for the court (1999–2016). Most cited: Aftab v. Gonzalez (288 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Aftab v. Gonzalez | 597 F. Supp. 2d 76 | 288 |
| 2011 | Ward v. D.C. Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services | 768 F. Supp. 2d 117 | 238 |
| 2009 | Hinton v. Corrections Corp. of America | 624 F. Supp. 2d 45 | 159 |
| 2008 | Montgomery v. STG International, Inc. | 532 F. Supp. 2d 29 | 110 |
| 2010 | Winston v. Clough | 712 F. Supp. 2d 1 | 99 |
| 2008 | Cruz-Packer v. District of Columbia | 539 F. Supp. 2d 181 | 99 |
| 2000 | The Wilderness Society v. Babbitt | 104 F. Supp. 2d 10 | 94 |
| 2000 | Mylan Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Shalala | 81 F. Supp. 2d 30 | 89 |
| 2008 | Marshall v. Honeywell Technology Solutions, Inc. | 536 F. Supp. 2d 59 | 85 |
| 2009 | Peavey v. Holder | 657 F. Supp. 2d 180 | 75 |
| 2012 | United States Ex Rel. Westrick v. Second Chance Body Armor, Inc. | 893 F. Supp. 2d 258 | 67 |
| 2007 | Hunter v. Johanns | 517 F. Supp. 2d 340 | 63 |
| 2007 | Koutny v. Martin | 530 F. Supp. 2d 84 | 61 |
| 2001 | Brodetski v. Duffey | 141 F. Supp. 2d 35 | 54 |
| 2010 | Gomez v. Aragon | 705 F. Supp. 2d 21 | 53 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 839 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 W. Roberts?
- President William J. Clinton appointed Richard W. Roberts to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in 1998.
- Was Richard W. Roberts appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- Richard W. Roberts was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was Richard W. Roberts's confirmation vote?
- Richard W. Roberts was confirmed by voice vote on June 5, 1998. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court is Richard W. Roberts on?
- Richard W. Roberts is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Sources
Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.
- FJC Biographical Directory
- Wikidata
- Portrait: United States Government (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.
28 years on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).