Richard Lesley Voorhees
Appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 and confirmed by voice vote, Richard Lesley Voorhees is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina. He earned a law degree from University of North Carolina School of Law in 1968. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Born
- 1941 · age 85
- Appointed by
- Ronald Reagan, 1988
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- Davidson College 1963 · University of North Carolina Law 1968
- Succeeded
- David Bryan Sentelle
- Succeeded by
- Kenneth Davis Bell Sr.
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | Western District of North Carolina succeeded David Bryan Sentelle | 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
| Davidson College | B.A. | 1963 |
| University of North Carolina School of Law | J.D. | 1968 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Voorhees was assigned 2,907 district-court cases (1982–2017). Median time from filing to termination: 306 days across 2,906 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 497 of Voorhees’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 446 were affirmed, 37 reversed or vacated, and 14 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, Voorhees authored 44 published opinions for the court (1988–2011). Most cited: Howard's Yellow Cabs, Inc. v. United States (100 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Howard's Yellow Cabs, Inc. v. United States | 987 F. Supp. 469 | 100 |
| 1991 | United States v. Stamper | 766 F. Supp. 1396 | 45 |
| 2003 | Smith v. Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories Co. | 278 F. Supp. 2d 684 | 23 |
| 1994 | Hamrick v. United States Ex Rel. Defense Finance & Accounting Service (In Re Hamrick) | 175 B.R. 890 | 20 |
| 1993 | Fisher v. Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College | 857 F. Supp. 465 | 14 |
| 1988 | Statesville Roofing & Heating Co., Inc. v. Duncan | 702 F. Supp. 118 | 12 |
| 2003 | Washington Square Securities, Inc. v. Aune | 253 F. Supp. 2d 839 | 10 |
| 1994 | Simmons v. United States | 875 F. Supp. 318 | 9 |
| 1993 | Hill v. United States | 844 F. Supp. 263 | 9 |
| 2010 | Armstrong v. Cansler | 722 F. Supp. 2d 653 | 8 |
| 1993 | American Angus Ass'n v. Sysco Corp. | 829 F. Supp. 807 | 8 |
| 2003 | M C Contractors, Inc. v. Fink (Fink) | 294 B.R. 657 | 7 |
| 2000 | Commodity Futures Trading Commission v. IBS, Inc. | 113 F. Supp. 2d 830 | 7 |
| 2008 | United States v. Price | 618 F. Supp. 2d 473 | 6 |
| 1999 | Arkansas Best Corp. v. Carolina Freight Corp. | 60 F. Supp. 2d 517 | 6 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 44 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 Lesley Voorhees?
- President Ronald Reagan appointed Richard Lesley Voorhees to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina in 1988.
- Was Richard Lesley Voorhees appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- Richard Lesley Voorhees was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was Richard Lesley Voorhees's confirmation vote?
- Richard Lesley Voorhees was confirmed by voice vote on October 14, 1988. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court is Richard Lesley Voorhees on?
- Richard Lesley Voorhees is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina.
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.
37 years on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).