Thomas W. Phillips
Appointed by President George W. Bush in 2002 and confirmed by voice vote, Thomas W. Phillips is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee. He earned a law degree from Vanderbilt University Law School in 1969. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Born
- 1943 · age 83
- Appointed by
- George W. Bush, 2002
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- Berea College 1965 · Vanderbilt Law School 1969
- Succeeded
- James Howard Jarvis II
- Succeeded by
- Pamela Lynn Reeves
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Eastern District of Tennessee succeeded James Howard Jarvis II | G.W. Bush (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
| Berea College | B.A. | 1965 |
| Vanderbilt University Law School | J.D. | 1969 |
| George Washington University Law School | LL.M. | 1973 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Phillips was assigned 2,080 district-court cases (1988–2019). Median time from filing to termination: 354 days across 2,080 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 252 of Phillips’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 204 were affirmed, 35 reversed or vacated, and 13 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, Phillips authored 30 published opinions for the court (1993–2011). Most cited: Campbell v. Anderson County (37 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Campbell v. Anderson County | 695 F. Supp. 2d 764 | 37 |
| 2010 | Maness v. Boston Scientific | 751 F. Supp. 2d 962 | 31 |
| 2011 | Brubaker v. Barrett | 801 F. Supp. 2d 743 | 24 |
| 2011 | Roopchan v. Adt SEC. Sys., Inc. | 781 F. Supp. 2d 636 | 17 |
| 2006 | Microsoft Corp. v. Sellers | 411 F. Supp. 2d 913 | 12 |
| 1999 | Downs v. Perstorp Components, Inc. | 126 F. Supp. 2d 1090 | 11 |
| 1994 | Wynn v. Morgan | 861 F. Supp. 622 | 11 |
| 2010 | Reagan v. City of Knoxville | 692 F. Supp. 2d 891 | 7 |
| 2006 | Southmayd v. Apria Healthcare, Inc. | 412 F. Supp. 2d 848 | 7 |
| 2003 | Pryor Oil Co., Inc. v. United States | 299 F. Supp. 2d 804 | 7 |
| 2008 | Shepherd v. EMC Mortgage Corp. (In Re Shepherd) | 381 B.R. 675 | 5 |
| 2009 | Invisible Fence, Inc. v. Fido's Fences, Inc. | 687 F. Supp. 2d 726 | 4 |
| 2006 | Teles v. Big Rock Stables, L.P. | 419 F. Supp. 2d 1003 | 4 |
| 2006 | Baptist Physician Hospital Organization, Inc. v. Humana Military Healthcare Services, Inc. | 415 F. Supp. 2d 835 | 4 |
| 2004 | Quist v. Wiesener | 327 F. Supp. 2d 890 | 3 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 30 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 W. Phillips?
- President George W. Bush appointed Thomas W. Phillips to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee in 2002.
- Was Thomas W. Phillips appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- Thomas W. Phillips was appointed by President George W. Bush, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was Thomas W. Phillips's confirmation vote?
- Thomas W. Phillips was confirmed by voice vote on November 14, 2002. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court is Thomas W. Phillips on?
- Thomas W. Phillips is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee.
Sources
Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.
- FJC Biographical Directory
- Wikidata
- Portrait: United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth 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.
23 years on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).