Who appointed Rudolph Contreras?

President Barack Obama appointed Rudolph Contreras to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in 2012.

Was Rudolph Contreras appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?

Rudolph Contreras was appointed by President Barack Obama, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.

What was Rudolph Contreras's confirmation vote?

Rudolph Contreras was confirmed by voice vote on March 22, 2012. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.

District of Columbia / Appointed 2012 / Active

Rudolph Contreras

Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

Appointed by President Barack Obama in 2012 and confirmed by voice vote, Rudolph Contreras is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. He earned a law degree from University of Pennsylvania Law School (now Carey Law School) in 1991. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Born: 1962 · age 64
Appointed by: Barack Obama, 2012
Confirmed: by voice vote
Education: Florida State 1984 · University of Pennsylvania Law School (now Carey Law School) 1991
Succeeded: Ricardo M. Urbina

Federal judicial service

Year	Court	Appointed by	Vote
2012	District of Columbia succeeded Ricardo M. Urbina	Obama (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

Florida State University	B.S.	1984
University of Pennsylvania Law School (now Carey Law School)	J.D.	1991

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Contreras was assigned 3,493 district-court cases (1994–2026). Median time from filing to termination: 86 days across 2,995 closed cases.

Personal-injury torts31%

Other civil matters27%

Other federal statutes17%

Criminal7%

Civil rights5%

Contract3%

Other10%

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 180 of Contreras’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 139 were affirmed, 36 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, Contreras authored 1,367 published opinions for the court (2012–2026). Most cited: Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America v. United States Department of Health and Human Services (84 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
2014	Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America v. United States Department of Health and Human Services	43 F. Supp. 3d 28	84
2016	Vasser v. Shinseki	228 F. Supp. 3d 1	80
2013	Floyd v. Office of Representative Sheila Jackson Lee	968 F. Supp. 2d 308	78
2015	Mokhtar v. Clinton	83 F. Supp. 3d 49	57
2016	Coulibaly v. Kerry	213 F. Supp. 3d 93	56
2015	Delta Air Lines, Inc. v. Export-Import Bank of the United States	85 F. Supp. 3d 250	55
2017	Hunton & Williams LLP v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency	248 F. Supp. 3d 220	54
2013	Coe v. McHugh	968 F. Supp. 2d 237	54
2017	100reporters LLC v. United States Department of Justice	248 F. Supp. 3d 115	51
2014	Ayuda, Inc. v. Federal Trade Commission	70 F. Supp. 3d 247	49
2016	N.W. v. District of Columbia	318 F.R.D. 196	48
2014	McAllister v. District of Columbia	21 F. Supp. 3d 94	46
2017	Pinson v. U.S. Department of Justice	236 F. Supp. 3d 338	45
2015	University of Colorado Health at Memorial Hospital v. Burwell	151 F. Supp. 3d 1	44
2017	Lemon v. Kramer	270 F. Supp. 3d 125	43

Showing the 15 most-cited of 1,367 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 Rudolph Contreras?: President Barack Obama appointed Rudolph Contreras to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in 2012.
Was Rudolph Contreras appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?: Rudolph Contreras was appointed by President Barack Obama, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Rudolph Contreras's confirmation vote?: Rudolph Contreras was confirmed by voice vote on March 22, 2012. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court is Rudolph Contreras on?: Rudolph Contreras is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

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.

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