Eastern District of Wisconsin / Appointed 1983 / Served to 2012

Thomas John Curran

Judge, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin

Appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1983 and confirmed by voice vote, Thomas John Curran was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. He earned a law degree from Marquette University Law School in 1948. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Lived
1924–2012
Appointed by
Ronald Reagan, 1983
Confirmed
by voice vote
Education
Marquette 1945 · Marquette Law School 1948
Succeeded by
Lynn S. Adelman

Federal judicial service

YearCourtAppointed byVote
1983Eastern District of Wisconsin
succeeded Myron L. Gordon
Reagan (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, Curran was assigned 2,130 district-court cases (1980–2006). Median time from filing to termination: 166 days across 2,130 closed cases.

Prisoner & habeas33%
Civil rights19%
Contract15%
Labor & ERISA8%
Personal-injury torts6%
Intellectual property4%
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, Curran authored 84 published opinions for the court (1985–2003). Most cited: G. Heileman Brewing Co. v. Anheuser-Busch Inc. (25 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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

YearCaseCitationCited
1987G. Heileman Brewing Co. v. Anheuser-Busch Inc.676 F. Supp. 143625
1988Gardner v. Romano688 F. Supp. 48921
1990Matter of Jack Winter Apparel, Inc.119 B.R. 62920
1998Oconomowoc Residential Programs, Inc. v. City of Greenfield23 F. Supp. 2d 94115
1997Hodgson v. Mississippi Department of Corrections963 F. Supp. 77615
1989Lewandowski v. Two Rivers Public School District711 F. Supp. 148614
1987Henne v. Allis-Chalmers Corp.660 F. Supp. 146414
1989Purdy v. Security Savings & Loan Ass'n727 F. Supp. 126612
1994Krawczyk v. Harnischfeger Corp.869 F. Supp. 61310
1992Ziolkowski v. Caterpillar, Inc.800 F. Supp. 76710
1989Huggins by Huggins v. Sea Ins. Co., Ltd.710 F. Supp. 24310
1987Munroe v. Lasch73 B.R. 90910
1985United States v. Gimbel632 F. Supp. 74810
1997Kerr v. Puckett967 F. Supp. 3549
1992Hameister v. Harley-Davidson, Inc.785 F. Supp. 1139

Showing the 15 most-cited of 84 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 Thomas John Curran?
President Ronald Reagan appointed Thomas John Curran to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin in 1983.
Was Thomas John Curran appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
Thomas John Curran was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Thomas John Curran's confirmation vote?
Thomas John Curran was confirmed by voice vote on November 4, 1983. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court was Thomas John Curran on?
Thomas John Curran was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin.

Sources

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

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

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