Who appointed Susan Yvonne Illston?

President William J. Clinton appointed Susan Yvonne Illston to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in 1995.

Was Susan Yvonne Illston appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?

Susan Yvonne Illston was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.

What was Susan Yvonne Illston's confirmation vote?

Susan Yvonne Illston was confirmed by voice vote on May 25, 1995. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.

Northern District of California / Appointed 1995 / Senior status since 2013

Susan Yvonne Illston

Judge, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

Appointed by President William J. Clinton in 1995 and confirmed by voice vote, Susan Yvonne Illston is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. She earned a law degree from Stanford Law School in 1973. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Born: 1948 · age 78
Appointed by: William J. Clinton, 1995
Confirmed: by voice vote
Education: Duke 1970 · Stanford Law School 1973
Succeeded: Barbara A. Caulfield
Succeeded by: Vince Girdhari Chhabria

Federal judicial service

Year	Court	Appointed by	Vote
1995	Northern District of California succeeded Barbara A. Caulfield	Clinton (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

Duke University	B.A.	1970
Stanford Law School	J.D.	1973

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Illston was assigned 6,206 district-court cases (1987–2026). Median time from filing to termination: 212 days across 6,061 closed cases.

Prisoner & habeas17%

Civil rights16%

Contract10%

Other civil matters9%

Other federal statutes9%

Intellectual property9%

Other30%

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 301 of Illston’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 246 were affirmed, 30 reversed or vacated, and 25 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, Illston authored 136 published opinions for the court (1995–2011). Most cited: Plute v. Roadway Package System, Inc. (110 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
2001	Plute v. Roadway Package System, Inc.	141 F. Supp. 2d 1005	110
2009	Vu v. Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical, Inc.	602 F. Supp. 2d 1151	87
2004	Concat Lp v. Unilever, Plc	350 F. Supp. 2d 796	79
2008	In Re TFT-LCD (Flat Panel) Antitrust Litigation	586 F. Supp. 2d 1109	66
2009	In Re TFT-LCD (Flat Panel) Antitrust Litigation	599 F. Supp. 2d 1179	41
2008	Ross v. U.S. Bank National Ass'n	542 F. Supp. 2d 1014	34
1996	Lilley v. Charren	936 F. Supp. 708	33
2009	Kelley v. Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc.	642 F. Supp. 2d 1048	32
2005	Lopez v. San Francisco Unified School District	385 F. Supp. 2d 981	28
2006	Center for Biological Diversity v. Bureau of Land Management	422 F. Supp. 2d 1115	27
2005	Strigliabotti v. Franklin Resources, Inc.	398 F. Supp. 2d 1094	26
2004	Bowoto v. Chevron Texaco Corp.	312 F. Supp. 2d 1229	25
2008	In Re Connetics Corp. Securities Litigation	542 F. Supp. 2d 996	23
2005	Howard v. Blue Ridge Bank	371 F. Supp. 2d 1139	21
2008	Bowoto v. CHEVTON CORP.	557 F. Supp. 2d 1080	20

Showing the 15 most-cited of 136 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 Susan Yvonne Illston?: President William J. Clinton appointed Susan Yvonne Illston to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in 1995.
Was Susan Yvonne Illston appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?: Susan Yvonne Illston was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Susan Yvonne Illston's confirmation vote?: Susan Yvonne Illston was confirmed by voice vote on May 25, 1995. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court is Susan Yvonne Illston on?: Susan Yvonne Illston is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Sources

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

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 Northern District of California. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).