Who appointed Richard Joseph Sullivan?

President Donald J. Trump appointed Richard Joseph Sullivan to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 2018.

Was Richard Joseph Sullivan appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?

Richard Joseph Sullivan was appointed by President Donald J. Trump, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.

What was Richard Joseph Sullivan's confirmation vote?

The Senate confirmed Richard Joseph Sullivan 79–16 on October 11, 2018.

Second Circuit / Appointed 2018 / Active

Richard Joseph Sullivan

Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

Appointed by President Donald J. Trump in 2018 and confirmed by the Senate 79–16, Richard Joseph Sullivan is a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He earned a law degree from Yale Law School in 1990. He previously served on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Opinions & record ↓ Sources ↓

Born: 1964 · age 62
Appointed by: Donald J. Trump, 2018
Confirmed: 79–16
Education: College of William and Mary 1986 · Yale Law School 1990
Succeeded: Richard C. Wesley

Federal judicial service

Year	Court	Appointed by	Vote
2007	Southern District of New York succeeded Michael B. Mukasey	G.W. Bush (R)	99–0
2018	Second Circuit succeeded Richard C. Wesley	Trump (R)	79–16

Party letters show the appointing president’s party, not the judge’s own.

Confirmation vote · Southern District of New York

Nomination Confirmed 99–0 on June 28, 2007 · 110th Congress, Roll Call 238. Each senator links to their judicial-voting record.

Voted to confirm · 99

48 D, 49 R, 2 I

Did not vote · 1

1 D

Tim Johnson(D-SD)

Confirmation vote · Second Circuit

Nomination Confirmed 79–16 on October 11, 2018 · 115th Congress, Roll Call 233. Each senator links to their judicial-voting record.

Voted to confirm · 79

28 D, 50 R, 1 I

Voted against · 16

15 D, 1 I

Did not vote · 5

4 D, 1 R

Education

College of William and Mary	B.A.	1986
Yale Law School	J.D.	1990

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Sullivan was assigned 2,731 district-court cases (1981–2026). Median time from filing to termination: 204 days across 2,717 closed cases.

Civil rights21%

Contract19%

Labor & ERISA13%

Intellectual property10%

Prisoner & habeas7%

Other federal statutes7%

Other23%

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 266 of Sullivan’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 225 were affirmed, 22 reversed or vacated, and 19 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, Sullivan authored 64 published opinions for the court (2007–2011). Most cited: Calzada v. ASTURE (159 citations).

Published, precedential opinions from the CourtListener corpus. Counts and rankings are objective and recomputable: how we count. We describe the record, not the judge.

Selected opinions

Year	Case	Citation	Cited
2010	Calzada v. ASTURE	753 F. Supp. 2d 250	159
2010	Correale-Englehart v. Astrue	687 F. Supp. 2d 396	86
2007	Murray v. Visiting Nurse Services of New York	528 F. Supp. 2d 257	84
2009	In Re PXRE Group, Ltd., Securities Litigation	600 F. Supp. 2d 510	82
2008	GUCCI AMERICA, INC. v. Tyrrell-Miller	678 F. Supp. 2d 117	53
2008	Pugh v. Goord	571 F. Supp. 2d 477	53
2008	Century Pacific, Inc. v. Hilton Hotels Corp.	574 F. Supp. 2d 369	53
2009	GEM Advisors, Inc. v. Corporación Sidenor, S.A.	667 F. Supp. 2d 308	50
2007	Sherman v. A.J. Pegno Construction Corp.	528 F. Supp. 2d 320	45
2009	In Re Fuwei Films Securities Litigation	634 F. Supp. 2d 419	36
2008	Kowalewski v. Samandarov	590 F. Supp. 2d 477	33
2008	Tiffany (NJ) Inc. v. eBay, Inc.	576 F. Supp. 2d 463	32
2008	Heller v. Goldin Restructuring Fund, L.P.	590 F. Supp. 2d 603	31
2008	Procter & Gamble Co. v. Ultreo, Inc.	574 F. Supp. 2d 339	31
2009	Galimore v. City University of New York Bronx Community College	641 F. Supp. 2d 269	30

Showing the 15 most-cited of 64 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 Sullivan?: President Donald J. Trump appointed Richard Joseph Sullivan to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 2018.
Was Richard Joseph Sullivan appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?: Richard Joseph Sullivan was appointed by President Donald J. Trump, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Richard Joseph Sullivan's confirmation vote?: The Senate confirmed Richard Joseph Sullivan 79–16 on October 11, 2018.
Which court is Richard Joseph Sullivan on?: Richard Joseph Sullivan is a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Sources

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

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

See something wrong? Report an error. Fixes are logged in the corrections log.

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