Sterling Johnson Jr.
Appointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1991 and confirmed by voice vote, Sterling Johnson Jr. was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. He earned a law degree from Brooklyn Law School in 1966. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Lived
- 1934–2022
- Appointed by
- George H.W. Bush, 1991
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- Brooklyn College, City of New York 1963 · Brooklyn Law School 1966
- Succeeded
- Joseph Michael McLaughlin
- Succeeded by
- Sandra L. Townes
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | Eastern District of New York succeeded Joseph Michael McLaughlin | G.H.W. Bush (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
| Brooklyn College, City University of New York | B.A. | 1963 |
| Brooklyn Law School | LL.B. | 1966 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Johnson was assigned 5,987 district-court cases (1985–2022). Median time from filing to termination: 291 days across 5,980 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 81 of Johnson’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 75 were affirmed, 4 reversed or vacated, and 2 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, Johnson authored 97 published opinions for the court (1991–2011). Most cited: Yuen Shing Lee v. Ashcroft (65 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Yuen Shing Lee v. Ashcroft | 216 F. Supp. 2d 51 | 65 |
| 2009 | Hines v. Overstock. Com, Inc. | 668 F. Supp. 2d 362 | 57 |
| 2010 | Guideone Specality Mutual Insurance v. Rock Community Church, Inc. | 696 F. Supp. 2d 203 | 41 |
| 1997 | Cablevision Systems New York City Corp. v. Lokshin | 980 F. Supp. 107 | 39 |
| 2010 | Lyons Partnership, L.P. v. D & L Amusement & Entertainment, Inc. | 702 F. Supp. 2d 104 | 33 |
| 2011 | Garcia v. BENJAMIMN GROUP ENTERPRISE INC. | 800 F. Supp. 2d 399 | 31 |
| 1996 | Cavallaro v. Law Office of Shapiro & Kreisman | 933 F. Supp. 1148 | 31 |
| 1995 | City of Amsterdam v. Daniel Goldreyer, Ltd. | 882 F. Supp. 1273 | 31 |
| 1992 | American Dredging Co. v. Plaza Petroleum Inc. | 799 F. Supp. 1335 | 25 |
| 2000 | Henrietta D. v. Giuliani | 119 F. Supp. 2d 181 | 24 |
| 2011 | P.K. Ex Rel. S.K. v. New York City Department of Education | 819 F. Supp. 2d 90 | 23 |
| 1994 | Moy v. Adelphi Institute, Inc. | 866 F. Supp. 696 | 21 |
| 2011 | McNamee v. Clemens | 762 F. Supp. 2d 584 | 20 |
| 1993 | Evans v. Waldorf-Astoria Corp. | 827 F. Supp. 911 | 18 |
| 1995 | Djordjevic v. Postmaster General | 911 F. Supp. 72 | 16 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 97 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 Sterling Johnson Jr.?
- President George H.W. Bush appointed Sterling Johnson Jr. to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York in 1991.
- Was Sterling Johnson Jr. appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- Sterling Johnson Jr. was appointed by President George H.W. Bush, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was Sterling Johnson Jr.'s confirmation vote?
- Sterling Johnson Jr. was confirmed by voice vote on June 27, 1991. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court was Sterling Johnson Jr. on?
- Sterling Johnson Jr. was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
Sources
Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.
- FJC Biographical Directory
- Wikidata
- Portrait: United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Public domain), via Wikimedia Commons
- 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.
31 years on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).