Northern District of Georgia / Appointed 1979 / Served to 2022

Robert L. Vining Jr.

Judge, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia

Appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1979 and confirmed by voice vote, Robert L. Vining Jr. was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. He earned a law degree from University of Georgia School of Law in 1959. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Lived
1931–2022
Appointed by
Jimmy Carter, 1979
Confirmed
by voice vote
Education
University of Georgia 1959 · University of Georgia Law 1959

Federal judicial service

YearCourtAppointed byVote
1979Northern District of GeorgiaCarter (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, Vining was assigned 7,158 district-court cases (1980–2014). Median time from filing to termination: 238 days across 7,157 closed cases.

Prisoner & habeas24%
Personal-injury torts22%
Civil rights15%
Contract11%
Property torts5%
Other federal statutes4%
Other17%

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 114 of Vining’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 100 were affirmed, 11 reversed or vacated, and 3 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, Vining authored 68 published opinions for the court (1979–2009). Most cited: Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. v. Sanyo Electric, Inc. (45 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 68 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 L. Vining Jr.?
President Jimmy Carter appointed Robert L. Vining Jr. to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia in 1979.
Was Robert L. Vining Jr. appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
Robert L. Vining Jr. was appointed by President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Robert L. Vining Jr.'s confirmation vote?
Robert L. Vining Jr. was confirmed by voice vote on July 23, 1979. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court was Robert L. Vining Jr. on?
Robert L. Vining Jr. was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

Sources

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

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

See something wrong? Report an error. Fixes are logged in the corrections log.

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