Terry J. Hatter Jr.
Appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1979 and confirmed by voice vote, Terry J. Hatter Jr. is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. He earned a law degree from University of Chicago Law School in 1960. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Born
- 1933 · age 93
- Appointed by
- Jimmy Carter, 1979
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Chief judge
- Central District of California, 1998 to 2001
- Education
- Wesleyan 1954 · University of Chicago Law School 1960
- Succeeded by
- Philip S. Gutierrez
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 | Central District of California chief judge 1998 to 2001 | Carter (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
| Wesleyan University | B.A. | 1954 |
| University of Chicago Law School | J.D. | 1960 |
Before the bench
Professional career before and outside the federal bench, as recorded by the Federal Judicial Center.
| U.S. Air Force NCO-in-charge | 1955-1956 |
| Adjudicator, U.S. Veterans Administration, Chicago, Illinois | 1960-1961 |
| Private practice, Chicago, Illinois | 1961-1962 |
| Assistant public defender, Cook County, Illinois | 1961-1962 |
| Assistant U.S. attorney, Northern District of California | 1962-1966 |
| Special assistant U.S. attorney, Eastern District of California | 1965-1966 |
| Chief counsel, San Francisco [California] Neighborhood Legal Assistance Foundation | 1966-1967 |
| Regional legal services director, Office of Economic Opportunity, San Francisco, California | 1967-1970 |
| Executive director, Western Center on Law and Poverty, Los Angeles, California | 1970-1973 |
| Associate clinical professor of law, University of Southern California Law Center | 1970-1974 |
| Professor of law, Loyola University, Los Angeles, California | 1973-1975 |
| Special assistant to the mayor, Los Angeles, California, 1974-1977; director of criminal justice planning, 1974-1975; director of urban development | 1975-1977 |
| Judge, Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles | 1977-1980 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Hatter was assigned 9,473 district-court cases (1972–2026). Median time from filing to termination: 180 days across 9,170 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 164 of Hatter’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 118 were affirmed, 28 reversed or vacated, and 18 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, Hatter authored 26 published opinions for the court (1982–2009). Most cited: Meinhold v. United States Department of Defense (19 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | Meinhold v. United States Department of Defense | 808 F. Supp. 1455 | 19 |
| 1989 | Uhles v. F.W. Woolworth Co. | 715 F. Supp. 297 | 11 |
| 1984 | Abadjian v. Gulf Oil Corp. | 602 F. Supp. 874 | 11 |
| 2007 | Martinez v. Gonzales | 504 F. Supp. 2d 887 | 8 |
| 1982 | United States v. Wayte | 549 F. Supp. 1376 | 8 |
| 1982 | S & M Paving, Inc. v. Construction Laborers Pension Trust | 539 F. Supp. 867 | 8 |
| 2003 | Hendrickson v. Amazon. Com, Inc. | 298 F. Supp. 2d 914 | 6 |
| 1990 | Eastport Associates v. City of Los Angeles (In Re Eastport Associates) | 114 B.R. 686 | 6 |
| 1987 | United States v. Real Property Located at 25231 Mammoth Circle, El Toro | 659 F. Supp. 925 | 6 |
| 1994 | De Oliveira v. United States Immigration & Naturalization Service | 873 F. Supp. 338 | 5 |
| 1982 | Sutton v. Atlantic Richfield Co. | 539 F. Supp. 658 | 5 |
| 1986 | Alliance Shippers, Inc. v. Southern Pacific Transportation Co. | 673 F. Supp. 1005 | 4 |
| 1982 | Kuhn v. United States | 541 F. Supp. 567 | 4 |
| 2000 | In Re Indefinite Detention Cases | 82 F. Supp. 2d 1098 | 3 |
| 1986 | Chidester v. United States | 646 F. Supp. 189 | 3 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 26 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 Terry J. Hatter Jr.?
- President Jimmy Carter appointed Terry J. Hatter Jr. to the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in 1979.
- Was Terry J. Hatter Jr. appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- Terry J. Hatter Jr. was appointed by President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was Terry J. Hatter Jr.'s confirmation vote?
- Terry J. Hatter Jr. was confirmed by voice vote on December 19, 1979. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court is Terry J. Hatter Jr. on?
- Terry J. Hatter Jr. is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
Sources
Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.
- FJC Biographical Directory
- Wikidata
- Portrait: United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (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.
46 years on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Data as of 2026-09-28. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).