Fifth Circuit / Appointed 1949 / Served to 1955

Robert Lee Russell

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

Appointed by President Harry S Truman in 1949 and confirmed by voice vote, Robert Lee Russell was a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He previously served on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Opinions & record ↓ Sources ↓

Lived
1900–1955
Appointed by
Harry S Truman, 1949
Confirmed
by voice vote
Succeeded by
John Robert Brown

Federal judicial service

YearCourtAppointed byVote
1940Northern District of GeorgiaF.D. Roosevelt (D)Voice vote
1949Fifth CircuitTruman (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

Read law1920

Judicial Record

In our data, Russell authored 11 published opinions for the court (1940–1949). Most cited: Fleming v. Atlantic Co. (27 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

Showing the 11 most-cited of 11 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 Lee Russell?
President Harry S Truman appointed Robert Lee Russell to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in 1949.
Was Robert Lee Russell appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
Robert Lee Russell was appointed by President Harry S Truman, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Robert Lee Russell's confirmation vote?
Robert Lee Russell was confirmed by voice vote on October 19, 1949. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court was Robert Lee Russell on?
Robert Lee Russell was a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Sources

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