Who appointed Thomas Ignatius Vanaskie?

President Barack Obama appointed Thomas Ignatius Vanaskie to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in 2010.

Was Thomas Ignatius Vanaskie appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?

Thomas Ignatius Vanaskie was appointed by President Barack Obama, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.

What was Thomas Ignatius Vanaskie's confirmation vote?

The Senate confirmed Thomas Ignatius Vanaskie 77–20 on April 21, 2010.

Third Circuit / Appointed 2010 / Served to 2019

Thomas Ignatius Vanaskie

Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit

Appointed by President Barack Obama in 2010 and confirmed by the Senate 77–20, Thomas Ignatius Vanaskie was a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He earned a law degree from Dickinson School of Law (now Penn State Dickinson Law) in 1978. He previously served on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. Opinions & record ↓ Sources ↓

Born: 1953 · age 73
Appointed by: Barack Obama, 2010
Confirmed: 77–20
Education: Lycoming College 1975 · Dickinson Law (now Penn State Dickinson Law) 1978
Succeeded: Franklin Stuart Van Antwerpen
Succeeded by: Peter Joseph Phipps

Federal judicial service

Year	Court	Appointed by	Vote
1994	Middle District of Pennsylvania	Clinton (D)	Voice vote
2010	Third Circuit succeeded Franklin Stuart Van Antwerpen	Obama (D)	77–20

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

Nomination Confirmed 77–20 on April 21, 2010 · 111th Congress, Roll Call 122. Each senator links to their judicial-voting record.

Voted to confirm · 77

56 D, 19 R, 2 I

Voted against · 20

20 R

Did not vote · 3

1 D, 2 R

Education

Lycoming College	B.A.	1975
Dickinson School of Law (now Penn State Dickinson Law)	J.D.	1978

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Vanaskie was assigned 3,615 district-court cases (1986–2012). Median time from filing to termination: 198 days across 3,613 closed cases.

Prisoner & habeas32%

Civil rights14%

Contract13%

Personal-injury torts12%

Real property7%

Other federal statutes6%

Other16%

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 133 of Vanaskie’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 123 were affirmed, 8 reversed or vacated, and 2 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, Vanaskie authored 124 published opinions for the court (1994–2010). Most cited: Baliotis v. McNeil (73 citations).

Published, precedential opinions from the CourtListener corpus. Counts and rankings are objective and recomputable: how we count. We describe the record, not the judge.

Selected opinions

Year	Case	Citation	Cited
1994	Baliotis v. McNeil	870 F. Supp. 1285	73
1998	Cruz v. Chater	990 F. Supp. 375	67
1999	Kilvitis v. County of Luzerne	52 F. Supp. 2d 403	48
1995	Rohrbach v. AT & T Nassau Metals Corp.	902 F. Supp. 523	45
2010	Mitchell v. Luckenbill	680 F. Supp. 2d 672	40
1999	Williams v. Fedor	69 F. Supp. 2d 649	39
1996	Rohrbach v. AT & T Nassau Metals Corp.	915 F. Supp. 712	39
2000	Krisa v. Equitable Life Assurance Society	109 F. Supp. 2d 316	37
2001	Brown v. Mendez	167 F. Supp. 2d 723	34
2008	In Re Pressure Sensitive Labelstock Antitrust Litigation	566 F. Supp. 2d 363	30
2008	Wilson v. Parisi	549 F. Supp. 2d 637	25
2005	Holocheck v. Luzerne County Head Start, Inc.	385 F. Supp. 2d 491	25
1995	Mass v. Bell Atlantic Tricon Leasing Corp. (In Re Mass)	178 B.R. 626	24
1999	Williams Controls, Inc. v. Parente, Randolph, Orlando, Carey & Associates	39 F. Supp. 2d 517	22
1998	Fortes v. Harding	19 F. Supp. 2d 323	22

Showing the 15 most-cited of 124 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 Ignatius Vanaskie?: President Barack Obama appointed Thomas Ignatius Vanaskie to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in 2010.
Was Thomas Ignatius Vanaskie appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?: Thomas Ignatius Vanaskie was appointed by President Barack Obama, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Thomas Ignatius Vanaskie's confirmation vote?: The Senate confirmed Thomas Ignatius Vanaskie 77–20 on April 21, 2010.
Which court was Thomas Ignatius Vanaskie on?: Thomas Ignatius Vanaskie was a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

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.

8 years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).