Who appointed Samuel Hugh Dillin?

President John F. Kennedy appointed Samuel Hugh Dillin to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana in 1961.

Was Samuel Hugh Dillin appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?

Samuel Hugh Dillin was appointed by President John F. Kennedy, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.

What was Samuel Hugh Dillin's confirmation vote?

Samuel Hugh Dillin was confirmed by voice vote on September 21, 1961. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.

Southern District of Indiana / Appointed 1961 / Served to 2006

Samuel Hugh Dillin

Judge, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana

Appointed by President John F. Kennedy in 1961 and confirmed by voice vote, Samuel Hugh Dillin was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana. He earned a law degree from Indiana University School of Law -- Bloomington (now Maurer School of Law) in 1938. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Lived: 1914–2006
Appointed by: John F. Kennedy, 1961
Confirmed: by voice vote
Education: Indiana 1936 · Indiana Law -- Bloomington (now Maurer School of Law) 1938
Succeeded by: David Frank Hamilton

Federal judicial service

Year	Court	Appointed by	Vote
1961	Southern District of Indiana	Kennedy (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

Indiana University	A.B.	1936
Indiana University School of Law -- Bloomington (now Maurer School of Law)	LL.B.	1938

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Dillin was assigned 8,653 district-court cases (1971–2001). Median time from filing to termination: 189 days across 8,653 closed cases.

Other civil matters47%

Prisoner & habeas12%

Personal-injury torts10%

Contract8%

Civil rights7%

Other federal statutes4%

Other12%

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.

In our data, Dillin authored 81 published opinions for the court (1962–2001). Most cited: McClish v. Niagara MacHine & Tool Works (50 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
1967	McClish v. Niagara MacHine & Tool Works	266 F. Supp. 987	50
1970	Simpson v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co.	318 F. Supp. 1152	44
1971	United States v. Board of Sch. Com'rs, Indianapolis, Ind.	332 F. Supp. 655	38
1966	Koehring Company v. National Automatic Tool Co.	257 F. Supp. 282	29
1989	Evitt v. University Heights Hospital	727 F. Supp. 495	28
1964	Commercial Union Insurance Co. of New York v. Adams	231 F. Supp. 860	28
1969	Burns v. Board of School Com'rs of City of Indianapolis, Ind.	302 F. Supp. 309	26
1985	Prudential Ins. Co. of America v. Crouch	606 F. Supp. 464	24
1982	Perry v. Hartz Mountain Corp.	537 F. Supp. 1387	23
1988	Rinehart v. International Playtex, Inc.	688 F. Supp. 475	22
1972	Franceschina v. Morgan	346 F. Supp. 833	22
1991	Sparmal Enterprises, Inc. v. Moffit Realty Corp. (In Re Sparmal Enterprises, Inc.)	126 B.R. 559	21
1984	Sanco, Inc. v. Ford Motor Co.	579 F. Supp. 893	20
1988	Jennings Water, Inc. v. City of North Vernon, Ind.	682 F. Supp. 421	19
1962	Cox v. Hutcheson	204 F. Supp. 442	18

Showing the 15 most-cited of 81 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 Hugh Dillin?: President John F. Kennedy appointed Samuel Hugh Dillin to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana in 1961.
Was Samuel Hugh Dillin appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?: Samuel Hugh Dillin was appointed by President John F. Kennedy, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Samuel Hugh Dillin's confirmation vote?: Samuel Hugh Dillin was confirmed by voice vote on September 21, 1961. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court was Samuel Hugh Dillin on?: Samuel Hugh Dillin was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana.

Sources

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

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

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