Richard Leroy Williams
Appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1980 and confirmed by voice vote, Richard Leroy Williams was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. He earned a law degree from University of Virginia School of Law in 1951. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Lived
- 1923–2011
- Appointed by
- Jimmy Carter, 1980
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- University of Virginia Law 1951
- Succeeded by
- Raymond Alvin Jackson
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | Eastern District of Virginia | Carter (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
| University of Virginia School of Law | LL.B. | 1951 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Williams was assigned 4,232 district-court cases (1981–2010). Median time from filing to termination: 140 days across 4,226 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 231 of Williams’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 209 were affirmed, 17 reversed or vacated, and 5 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, Williams authored 186 published opinions for the court (1980–2010). Most cited: Sumner v. Tucker (81 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Sumner v. Tucker | 9 F. Supp. 2d 641 | 81 |
| 1992 | Khandelwal v. Compuadd Corp. | 780 F. Supp. 1077 | 42 |
| 1992 | Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. v. Peck Iron & Metal Co. | 814 F. Supp. 1269 | 38 |
| 1980 | Obenshain v. Halliday | 504 F. Supp. 946 | 34 |
| 1992 | CMF Virginia Land, L.P. v. Brinson | 806 F. Supp. 90 | 33 |
| 1992 | Colonial Williamsburg Foundation v. Kittinger Co. | 792 F. Supp. 1397 | 33 |
| 1988 | Neal v. Coleburn | 689 F. Supp. 1426 | 30 |
| 1996 | Breard v. Netherland | 949 F. Supp. 1255 | 29 |
| 1987 | Adams v. Aero Services International, Inc. | 657 F. Supp. 519 | 29 |
| 1991 | Saunders v. Wire Rope Corp. | 777 F. Supp. 1281 | 28 |
| 1986 | HMK Corp. v. Walsey | 637 F. Supp. 710 | 28 |
| 1996 | Republic of Paraguay v. Allen | 949 F. Supp. 1269 | 25 |
| 1986 | Meadow Ltd. Partnership v. Heritage Savings & Loan Ass'n | 639 F. Supp. 643 | 25 |
| 1993 | Harmer v. Virginia Electric & Power Co. | 831 F. Supp. 1300 | 24 |
| 1995 | Shaheed v. Winston | 885 F. Supp. 861 | 23 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 186 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 Leroy Williams?
- President Jimmy Carter appointed Richard Leroy Williams to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in 1980.
- Was Richard Leroy Williams appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- Richard Leroy Williams was appointed by President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was Richard Leroy Williams's confirmation vote?
- Richard Leroy Williams was confirmed by voice vote on September 29, 1980. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court was Richard Leroy Williams on?
- Richard Leroy Williams was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
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.
30 years on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).