Thomas Selby Ellis III
Appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1987 and confirmed by voice vote, Thomas Selby Ellis III was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. He earned a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1969. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Lived
- 1940–2025
- Appointed by
- Ronald Reagan, 1987
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- Princeton 1961 · Harvard Law School 1969
- Succeeded
- Robert Reynold Merhige Jr.
- Succeeded by
- Mark Steven Davis
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 | Eastern District of Virginia succeeded Robert Reynold Merhige Jr. | 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
| Princeton University | B.S.E. | 1961 |
| Harvard Law School | J.D. | 1969 |
| University of Oxford Faculty of Law | Diploma in Law | 1970 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Ellis was assigned 6,836 district-court cases (1987–2026). Median time from filing to termination: 123 days across 6,823 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 457 of Ellis’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 402 were affirmed, 37 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, Ellis authored 831 published opinions for the court (1987–2012). Most cited: Board of Trustees, Sheet Metal Workers National Fund v. Baylor Heating & Air Conditioning, Inc. (307 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | Board of Trustees, Sheet Metal Workers National Fund v. Baylor Heating & Air Conditioning, Inc. | 702 F. Supp. 1253 | 307 |
| 1999 | Langford v. Couch | 50 F. Supp. 2d 544 | 179 |
| 2000 | In Re MicroStrategy, Inc. Securities Litigation | 115 F. Supp. 2d 620 | 146 |
| 2009 | Hinton v. Trans Union, LLC | 654 F. Supp. 2d 440 | 110 |
| 2000 | Scott v. Kelly | 107 F. Supp. 2d 706 | 100 |
| 2007 | Walker v. S.W.I.F.T. SCRL | 517 F. Supp. 2d 801 | 98 |
| 1992 | Magnuson v. Peak Technical Services, Inc. | 808 F. Supp. 500 | 93 |
| 2006 | Sparrow v. Director, Department of Corrections | 439 F. Supp. 2d 584 | 89 |
| 1995 | Cavallo v. Star Enterprise | 892 F. Supp. 756 | 89 |
| 2003 | GlobalSantaFe Corp. v. Globalsantafe. Com | 250 F. Supp. 2d 610 | 81 |
| 1999 | Preval v. Reno | 57 F. Supp. 2d 307 | 81 |
| 1989 | Erickson Ex Rel. United States v. American Institute of Biological Sciences | 716 F. Supp. 908 | 76 |
| 1995 | Coppage v. Mann | 906 F. Supp. 1025 | 75 |
| 1991 | Wang Laboratories, Inc. v. Toshiba Corp. | 762 F. Supp. 1246 | 62 |
| 2006 | Safadi v. Howard | 466 F. Supp. 2d 696 | 60 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 831 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 Selby Ellis III?
- President Ronald Reagan appointed Thomas Selby Ellis III to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in 1987.
- Was Thomas Selby Ellis III appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- Thomas Selby Ellis III was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was Thomas Selby Ellis III's confirmation vote?
- Thomas Selby Ellis III was confirmed by voice vote on August 5, 1987. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court was Thomas Selby Ellis III on?
- Thomas Selby Ellis III was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Sources
Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.
- FJC Biographical Directory
- Wikidata
- 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.
37 years on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).