Who appointed Walter Jay Skinner?

President Richard M. Nixon appointed Walter Jay Skinner to the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts in 1973.

Was Walter Jay Skinner appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?

Walter Jay Skinner was appointed by President Richard M. Nixon, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.

What was Walter Jay Skinner's confirmation vote?

Walter Jay Skinner was confirmed by voice vote on December 14, 1973. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.

District of Massachusetts / Appointed 1973 / Served to 2005

Walter Jay Skinner

Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts

Appointed by President Richard M. Nixon in 1973 and confirmed by voice vote, Walter Jay Skinner was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. He earned a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1952. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Lived: 1927–2005
Appointed by: Richard M. Nixon, 1973
Confirmed: by voice vote
Education: Harvard 1948 · Harvard Law School 1952
Succeeded: Anthony Julian
Succeeded by: Patti B. Saris

Federal judicial service

Year	Court	Appointed by	Vote
1973	District of Massachusetts succeeded Anthony Julian	Nixon (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

Harvard University	A.B.	1948
Harvard Law School	J.D.	1952

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Skinner was assigned 1,276 district-court cases (1972–2002). Median time from filing to termination: 420 days across 1,276 closed cases.

Contract23%

Personal-injury torts17%

Labor & ERISA9%

Prisoner & habeas9%

Civil rights8%

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.

In our data, Skinner authored 185 published opinions for the court (1974–1996). Most cited: Anderson v. W.R. Grace & Co. (71 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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
1986	Anderson v. W.R. Grace & Co.	628 F. Supp. 1219	71
1981	Payton v. Abbott Labs	512 F. Supp. 1031	67
1979	S-G Securities, Inc. v. Fuqua Investment Co.	466 F. Supp. 1114	65
1976	Colonial Tavern, Inc. v. Byrne	420 F. Supp. 44	38
1993	Data General Corp. v. Grumman Systems Support Corp.	825 F. Supp. 340	31
1992	Data General Corp. v. Grumman Systems Support Corp.	795 F. Supp. 501	31
1992	United States v. Kaplan	146 B.R. 500	29
1990	Conway v. Boston Edison Co.	745 F. Supp. 773	28
1995	Lindner Dividend Fund, Inc. v. Ernst & Young	880 F. Supp. 49	27
1989	Framingham Union Hospital, Inc. v. Travelers Insurance	721 F. Supp. 1478	26
1988	Norman v. Brown, Todd & Heyburn	693 F. Supp. 1259	26
1988	Sokhos v. Mayflower Transit, Inc.	691 F. Supp. 1578	25
1989	In Re Atlantic Financial Management, Inc. Securities Litigation	718 F. Supp. 1012	24
1982	Codex Corp. v. Milgo Electronic Corp.	541 F. Supp. 1198	23
1986	Roberts v. Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Co., Inc.	653 F. Supp. 406	22

Showing the 15 most-cited of 185 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 Walter Jay Skinner?: President Richard M. Nixon appointed Walter Jay Skinner to the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts in 1973.
Was Walter Jay Skinner appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?: Walter Jay Skinner was appointed by President Richard M. Nixon, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Walter Jay Skinner's confirmation vote?: Walter Jay Skinner was confirmed by voice vote on December 14, 1973. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court was Walter Jay Skinner on?: Walter Jay Skinner was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

Sources

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

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

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