Southern District of Mississippi / Appointed 1984 / Senior status since 2006

Tom Stewart Lee

Judge, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi

Appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1984 and confirmed by voice vote, Tom Stewart Lee is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi. He earned a law degree from University of Mississippi School of Law in 1965. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Born
1941 · age 85
Appointed by
Ronald Reagan, 1984
Confirmed
by voice vote
Education
Mississippi College 1963 · University of Mississippi Law 1965

Federal judicial service

YearCourtAppointed byVote
1984Southern District of MississippiReagan (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, Lee was assigned 7,965 district-court cases (1975–2026). Median time from filing to termination: 236 days across 7,778 closed cases.

Personal-injury torts22%
Contract21%
Prisoner & habeas20%
Civil rights10%
Other civil matters6%
Labor & ERISA5%
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.

On appeal

Of 242 of Lee’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 200 were affirmed, 28 reversed or vacated, and 14 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, Lee authored 533 published opinions for the court (1984–2012). Most cited: Bank One, N.A. v. Coates (106 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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
2001Bank One, N.A. v. Coates125 F. Supp. 2d 819106
1987Johnson v. Craft673 F. Supp. 19158
1992Lawrence v. Jackson MacK Sales, Inc.837 F. Supp. 77141
1989Moore v. Interstate Fire Insurance717 F. Supp. 119332
2000Blakeley v. United Cable System105 F. Supp. 2d 57429
1994Bingham v. Terminix International Co.850 F. Supp. 51629
1988Crouch v. General Electric Co.699 F. Supp. 58529
1994American States Insurance v. F.H.S., Inc.843 F. Supp. 18727
1986Thatcher v. Brennan657 F. Supp. 627
1986Liston v. Home Insurance659 F. Supp. 27627
2000Raesly v. Grand Housing, Inc.105 F. Supp. 2d 56225
2001Beneficial National Bank, U.S.A. v. Payton214 F. Supp. 2d 67923
1998Phillips v. New England Mutual Life Insurance36 F. Supp. 2d 34523
1984State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance v. Universal Underwriters Insurance601 F. Supp. 28623
2002Ott v. Consolidated Freightways Corp. of Delaware213 F. Supp. 2d 66221

Showing the 15 most-cited of 533 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 Tom Stewart Lee?
President Ronald Reagan appointed Tom Stewart Lee to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi in 1984.
Was Tom Stewart Lee appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
Tom Stewart Lee was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Tom Stewart Lee's confirmation vote?
Tom Stewart Lee was confirmed by voice vote on June 11, 1984. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court is Tom Stewart Lee on?
Tom Stewart Lee is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi.

Sources

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

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

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