District of Colorado / Appointed 1971 / Served to 1994

Sherman Glenn Finesilver

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

Appointed by President Richard M. Nixon in 1971 and confirmed by voice vote, Sherman Glenn Finesilver was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado. He earned a law degree from University of Denver College of Law (now Sturm College of Law) in 1952. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Lived
1927–2006
Appointed by
Richard M. Nixon, 1971
Confirmed
by voice vote
Education
University of Colorado 1949 · University of Denver College of Law (now Sturm College of Law) 1952
Succeeded by
Wiley Young Daniel

Federal judicial service

YearCourtAppointed byVote
1971District of ColoradoNixon (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

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Finesilver was assigned 2,565 district-court cases (1980–1994). Median time from filing to termination: 126 days across 2,562 closed cases.

Contract29%
Prisoner & habeas17%
Civil rights15%
Personal-injury torts12%
Other federal statutes7%
Bankruptcy5%
Other15%

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, Finesilver authored 163 published opinions for the court (1972–1994). Most cited: TV Communications Network, Inc. v. ESPN, Inc. (233 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 163 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 Sherman Glenn Finesilver?
President Richard M. Nixon appointed Sherman Glenn Finesilver to the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado in 1971.
Was Sherman Glenn Finesilver appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
Sherman Glenn Finesilver was appointed by President Richard M. Nixon, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Sherman Glenn Finesilver's confirmation vote?
Sherman Glenn Finesilver was confirmed by voice vote on September 21, 1971. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court was Sherman Glenn Finesilver on?
Sherman Glenn Finesilver was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado.

Sources

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

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

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