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.

Central District of California / Appointed 1979 / Senior status since 2005

Terry J. Hatter Jr.

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

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
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	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

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.

Personal-injury torts21%

Prisoner & habeas17%

Other civil matters17%

Contract9%

Intellectual property9%

Civil rights8%

Other20%

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.

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 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).