Southern District of Florida / Appointed 1993 / Served to 2003

Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr.

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

Appointed by President William J. Clinton in 1993 and confirmed by voice vote, Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. He earned a law degree from Howard University School of Law in 1968. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Lived
1938–2003
Appointed by
William J. Clinton, 1993
Confirmed
by voice vote
Education
Florida A&M 1960 · Howard Law 1968
Succeeded by
Marcia G. Cooke

Federal judicial service

YearCourtAppointed byVote
1993Southern District of FloridaClinton (D)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, Ferguson was assigned 3,181 district-court cases (1987–2003). Median time from filing to termination: 253 days across 3,181 closed cases.

Contract25%
Civil rights23%
Prisoner & habeas18%
Other federal statutes7%
Labor & ERISA7%
Personal-injury torts6%
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 22 of Ferguson’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 21 were affirmed, 1 reversed or vacated. 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, Ferguson authored 35 published opinions for the court (1994–2002). Most cited: Cramer v. Chiles (28 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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

Showing the 15 most-cited of 35 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 Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr.?
President William J. Clinton appointed Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in 1993.
Was Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr.'s confirmation vote?
Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. was confirmed by voice vote on November 20, 1993. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court was Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. on?
Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Sources

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

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

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