Southern District of West Virginia / Appointed 1979 / Served to 2005

Robert Jackson Staker

Judge, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia

Appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1979 and confirmed by voice vote, Robert Jackson Staker was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia. He earned a law degree from West Virginia University College of Law in 1952. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Lived
1925–2008
Appointed by
Jimmy Carter, 1979
Confirmed
by voice vote
Education
West Virginia College of Law 1952

Federal judicial service

YearCourtAppointed byVote
1979Southern District of West VirginiaCarter (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

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Staker was assigned 2,964 district-court cases (1977–2005). Median time from filing to termination: 0 days across 2,956 closed cases.

Personal-injury torts42%
Social Security22%
Contract13%
Prisoner & habeas7%
Labor & ERISA5%
Civil rights3%
Other9%

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 13 of Staker’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 12 were affirmed, 1 reversed or vacated. 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, Staker authored 28 published opinions for the court (1980–1999). Most cited: Pauley v. Combustion Engineering, Inc. (24 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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

Showing the 15 most-cited of 28 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 Jackson Staker?
President Jimmy Carter appointed Robert Jackson Staker to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia in 1979.
Was Robert Jackson Staker appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
Robert Jackson Staker was appointed by President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Robert Jackson Staker's confirmation vote?
Robert Jackson Staker was confirmed by voice vote on September 11, 1979. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court was Robert Jackson Staker on?
Robert Jackson Staker was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.

Sources

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

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

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26 years on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).