Who appointed Thomas Samuel Zilly?

President Ronald Reagan appointed Thomas Samuel Zilly to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in 1988.

Was Thomas Samuel Zilly appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?

Thomas Samuel Zilly was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.

What was Thomas Samuel Zilly's confirmation vote?

Thomas Samuel Zilly was confirmed by voice vote on April 19, 1988. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.

Western District of Washington / Appointed 1988 / Senior status since 2004

Thomas Samuel Zilly

Judge, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington

Appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 and confirmed by voice vote, Thomas Samuel Zilly is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. He earned a law degree from Cornell Law School in 1962. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Born: 1935 · age 91
Appointed by: Ronald Reagan, 1988
Confirmed: by voice vote
Education: University of Michigan 1956 · Cornell Law School 1962
Succeeded: Walter Thomas McGovern
Succeeded by: James L. Robart

Federal judicial service

Year	Court	Appointed by	Vote
1988	Western District of Washington succeeded Walter Thomas McGovern	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

University of Michigan	B.A.	1956
Cornell Law School	J.D.	1962

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Zilly was assigned 8,641 district-court cases (1975–2026). Median time from filing to termination: 229 days across 8,523 closed cases.

Personal-injury torts18%

Contract15%

Prisoner & habeas13%

Civil rights11%

Labor & ERISA10%

Other federal statutes8%

Other25%

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 268 of Zilly’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 212 were affirmed, 24 reversed or vacated, and 32 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, Zilly authored 107 published opinions for the court (1988–2011). Most cited: Shurgard Storage Centers, Inc. v. Safeguard Self Storage, Inc. (62 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
2000	Shurgard Storage Centers, Inc. v. Safeguard Self Storage, Inc.	119 F. Supp. 2d 1121	62
2000	Greenpeace v. National Marine Fisheries Service	80 F. Supp. 2d 1137	50
1988	Northern Spotted Owl (Strix Occidentalis Caurina) v. Hodel	716 F. Supp. 479	48
2001	Doe v. 2TheMart. Com Inc.	140 F. Supp. 2d 1088	47
2003	In Re Metawave Communications Corp. Securities Litigation	298 F. Supp. 2d 1056	31
2010	Safeworks, LLC v. Teupen America, LLC	717 F. Supp. 2d 1181	27
2006	Docusign, Inc. v. Sertifi, Inc.	468 F. Supp. 2d 1305	27
1996	Greene v. Babbitt	943 F. Supp. 1278	25
1998	Smith v. University of Washington Law School	2 F. Supp. 2d 1324	24
1997	Children's Alliance v. City of Bellevue	950 F. Supp. 1491	24
1991	Northern Spotted Owl v. Lujan	758 F. Supp. 621	24
1999	Greenpeace v. National Marine Fisheries Service	55 F. Supp. 2d 1248	22
1991	Multicare Medical Center v. State of Wash.	768 F. Supp. 1349	22
1990	Horan v. King County, Washington, Division of Emergency Medical Services	740 F. Supp. 1471	20
1991	Port Lynch, Inc. v. New England International Assurety of America, Inc.	754 F. Supp. 816	19

Showing the 15 most-cited of 107 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 Samuel Zilly?: President Ronald Reagan appointed Thomas Samuel Zilly to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in 1988.
Was Thomas Samuel Zilly appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?: Thomas Samuel Zilly was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Thomas Samuel Zilly's confirmation vote?: Thomas Samuel Zilly was confirmed by voice vote on April 19, 1988. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court is Thomas Samuel Zilly on?: Thomas Samuel Zilly is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.

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.

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