Samuel Ray Cummings
Appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1987 and confirmed by voice vote, Samuel Ray Cummings is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. He earned a law degree from Baylor University School of Law in 1970. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Born
- 1944 · age 82
- Appointed by
- Ronald Reagan, 1987
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- Texas Technological College (now Texas Tech) 1967 · Baylor Law 1970
- Succeeded
- Halbert Owen Woodward
- Succeeded by
- James Wesley Hendrix
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 | Northern District of Texas succeeded Halbert Owen Woodward | Reagan (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
| Texas Technological College (now Texas Tech University) | B.B.A. | 1967 |
| Baylor University School of Law | J.D. | 1970 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Cummings was assigned 14,686 district-court cases (1986–2024). Median time from filing to termination: 158 days across 14,677 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 1,927 of Cummings’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 1,672 were affirmed, 125 reversed or vacated, and 130 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, Cummings authored 70 published opinions for the court (1988–2011). Most cited: Federal Deposit Insurance v. Niblo (98 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | Federal Deposit Insurance v. Niblo | 821 F. Supp. 441 | 98 |
| 1998 | Rodriguez v. Texas Commission on the Arts | 992 F. Supp. 876 | 34 |
| 2003 | Thompson v. Eason | 258 F. Supp. 2d 508 | 33 |
| 1999 | United States v. Emerson | 46 F. Supp. 2d 598 | 23 |
| 2000 | Educational Credit Management Corp. v. McLeroy (In Re McLeroy) | 250 B.R. 872 | 21 |
| 2003 | McDorman Ex Rel. Connelly v. TEXAS-COLA LEASING CO., LP | 288 F. Supp. 2d 796 | 19 |
| 2005 | Johnson v. Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Texas | 375 F. Supp. 2d 545 | 17 |
| 1996 | McKee v. American Transfer and Storage | 946 F. Supp. 485 | 16 |
| 1990 | Foster v. North Texas Production Credit Ass'n (In Re Foster) | 121 B.R. 961 | 16 |
| 2000 | Halfmann v. USAG Ins. Services, Inc. | 118 F. Supp. 2d 714 | 15 |
| 2004 | Roberts v. Haragan | 346 F. Supp. 2d 853 | 13 |
| 1988 | United States v. Thomas (In Re Thomas) | 91 B.R. 731 | 13 |
| 2006 | Texas Tech University v. Spiegelberg | 461 F. Supp. 2d 510 | 12 |
| 1999 | Iwata v. Stryker Corp. | 59 F. Supp. 2d 600 | 12 |
| 1998 | Industrial Molding Corp. v. American Manufacturers Mutual Insurance | 17 F. Supp. 2d 633 | 12 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 70 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 Samuel Ray Cummings?
- President Ronald Reagan appointed Samuel Ray Cummings to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas in 1987.
- Was Samuel Ray Cummings appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- Samuel Ray Cummings was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was Samuel Ray Cummings's confirmation vote?
- Samuel Ray Cummings was confirmed by voice vote on December 8, 1987. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court is Samuel Ray Cummings on?
- Samuel Ray Cummings is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
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.
38 years on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).