Robert E. Payne
Appointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1992 and confirmed by voice vote, Robert E. Payne is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. He earned a law degree from Washington and Lee University School of Law in 1967. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Born
- 1941 · age 85
- Appointed by
- George H.W. Bush, 1992
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- Washington and Lee 1963 · Washington and Lee Law 1967
- Succeeded
- Joseph Calvitt Clarke Jr.
- Succeeded by
- John Adrian Gibney Jr.
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Eastern District of Virginia succeeded Joseph Calvitt Clarke Jr. | G.H.W. Bush (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
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Payne was assigned 5,572 district-court cases (1987–2026). Median time from filing to termination: 143 days across 5,406 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 467 of Payne’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 404 were affirmed, 41 reversed or vacated, and 22 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, Payne authored 242 published opinions for the court (1992–2011). Most cited: Clay v. Yates (212 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 | Clay v. Yates | 809 F. Supp. 417 | 212 |
| 2003 | Koh v. Microtek International, Inc. | 250 F. Supp. 2d 627 | 103 |
| 2005 | Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. v. Rambus, Inc. | 386 F. Supp. 2d 708 | 97 |
| 1992 | Verosol B v. v. Hunter Douglas, Inc. | 806 F. Supp. 582 | 76 |
| 2006 | Byerson v. Equifax Information Services, LLC | 467 F. Supp. 2d 627 | 73 |
| 2004 | Brown v. Mitchell | 308 F. Supp. 2d 682 | 57 |
| 1994 | Crestar Bank v. Walker (In Re Walker) | 165 B.R. 994 | 42 |
| 1993 | Oxford House, Inc. v. City of Virginia Beach, Va. | 825 F. Supp. 1251 | 41 |
| 1994 | WAMCO, III, Ltd. v. First Piedmont Mortgage Corp. | 856 F. Supp. 1076 | 40 |
| 2001 | Rambus, Inc. v. Infineon Technologies AG | 145 F. Supp. 2d 721 | 39 |
| 1997 | United States v. Beckford | 962 F. Supp. 748 | 39 |
| 1995 | Westmoreland v. Brown | 883 F. Supp. 67 | 39 |
| 1993 | In Re Fromal | 151 B.R. 733 | 39 |
| 2006 | Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. v. Rambus Inc. | 440 F. Supp. 2d 495 | 38 |
| 2011 | E.I. Du Pont De Nemours & Co. v. Kolon Industries, Inc. | 803 F. Supp. 2d 469 | 32 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 242 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 Robert E. Payne?
- President George H.W. Bush appointed Robert E. Payne to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in 1992.
- Was Robert E. Payne appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- Robert E. Payne was appointed by President George H.W. Bush, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was Robert E. Payne's confirmation vote?
- Robert E. Payne was confirmed by voice vote on May 12, 1992. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court is Robert E. Payne on?
- Robert E. Payne is 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.
34 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).