Samuel Pailthorpe King
Appointed by President Richard M. Nixon in 1972 and confirmed by voice vote, Samuel Pailthorpe King was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii. He earned a law degree from Yale Law School in 1940. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Lived
- 1916–2010
- Appointed by
- Richard M. Nixon, 1972
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- Yale 1937 · Yale Law School 1940
- Succeeded
- Cyrus Nils Tavares
- Succeeded by
- David Alan Ezra
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1972 | District of Hawaii succeeded Cyrus Nils Tavares | Nixon (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
| Yale University | B.S. | 1937 |
| Yale Law School | LL.B. | 1940 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, King was assigned 1,675 district-court cases (1984–2009). Median time from filing to termination: 253 days across 1,675 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 31 of King’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 30 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, King authored 188 published opinions for the court (1972–2010). Most cited: Suzuki v. Quisenberry (80 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1976 | Suzuki v. Quisenberry | 411 F. Supp. 1113 | 80 |
| 1980 | E. E. Black, Ltd. v. Marshall | 497 F. Supp. 1088 | 76 |
| 1976 | United States v. Kim | 415 F. Supp. 1252 | 59 |
| 1974 | Loo v. Gerarge | 374 F. Supp. 1338 | 51 |
| 1979 | Palila v. Hawaii Department of Land & Natural Resources | 471 F. Supp. 985 | 47 |
| 1973 | Butler v. United States | 365 F. Supp. 1035 | 44 |
| 1980 | Kaneshiro v. North American Co. for Life & Health Insurance | 496 F. Supp. 452 | 40 |
| 1975 | Vollert v. Summa Corp. | 389 F. Supp. 1348 | 37 |
| 1981 | First Savings & Loan Ass'n v. First Federal Savings & Loan Ass'n | 531 F. Supp. 251 | 33 |
| 1980 | Robert's Waikiki U-Drive, Inc. v. Budget Rent-A-Car Systems, Inc. | 491 F. Supp. 1199 | 32 |
| 1983 | First Hawaiian Bank v. Alexander | 558 F. Supp. 1128 | 30 |
| 1973 | People of Enewetak v. Laird | 353 F. Supp. 811 | 30 |
| 1972 | Ross v. Goshi | 351 F. Supp. 949 | 30 |
| 1974 | Borreca v. Fasi | 369 F. Supp. 906 | 29 |
| 1986 | Kaiser Development Co. v. City & County of Honolulu | 649 F. Supp. 926 | 28 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 188 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 Pailthorpe King?
- President Richard M. Nixon appointed Samuel Pailthorpe King to the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii in 1972.
- Was Samuel Pailthorpe King appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- Samuel Pailthorpe King was appointed by President Richard M. Nixon, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was Samuel Pailthorpe King's confirmation vote?
- Samuel Pailthorpe King was confirmed by voice vote on June 28, 1972. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court was Samuel Pailthorpe King on?
- Samuel Pailthorpe King was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii.
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 District of Hawaii. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).