William Marsh Acker Jr.
Appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1982 and confirmed by voice vote, William Marsh Acker Jr. was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. He earned a law degree from Yale Law School in 1952. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Lived
- 1927–2018
- Appointed by
- Ronald Reagan, 1982
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- Birmingham-Southern College 1949 · Yale Law School 1952
- Succeeded
- Frank Hampton McFadden
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1982 | Northern District of Alabama succeeded Frank Hampton McFadden | 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
| Birmingham-Southern College | B.A. | 1949 |
| Yale Law School | LL.B. | 1952 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Acker was assigned 5,494 district-court cases (1974–2016). Median time from filing to termination: 169 days across 5,494 closed cases.
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 105 of Acker’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 88 were affirmed, 11 reversed or vacated, and 6 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, Acker authored 232 published opinions for the court (1982–2011). Most cited: King v. Shelby Medical Center (49 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | King v. Shelby Medical Center | 779 F. Supp. 157 | 49 |
| 1999 | Chandler v. Samford University | 35 F. Supp. 2d 861 | 34 |
| 1991 | Holland v. World Omni Leasing, Inc. | 764 F. Supp. 1442 | 29 |
| 1991 | Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama v. Lewis | 753 F. Supp. 345 | 28 |
| 1991 | Martin v. Drummond Coal Co., Inc. | 756 F. Supp. 524 | 27 |
| 1998 | Garrett v. Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama | 989 F. Supp. 1409 | 26 |
| 1988 | Jordan v. Reliable Life Insurance | 694 F. Supp. 822 | 26 |
| 1983 | United States v. Welden | 568 F. Supp. 516 | 26 |
| 1989 | Beesley v. Hartford Fire Insurance | 723 F. Supp. 635 | 24 |
| 1984 | Vaughan v. Central Bank of the South | 36 B.R. 935 | 23 |
| 1988 | Sandlin v. Iron Workers District Council of Tennessee Valley & Vicinity Pension Plan | 716 F. Supp. 571 | 22 |
| 1989 | Beesley v. Hartford Fire Insurance | 717 F. Supp. 781 | 21 |
| 1996 | MacPherson v. University of Montevallo | 938 F. Supp. 785 | 19 |
| 1983 | Weaver v. G.D. Searle & Co. | 558 F. Supp. 720 | 19 |
| 2007 | Andalusia Enterprises, Inc. v. Evanston Insurance | 487 F. Supp. 2d 1290 | 17 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 232 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 William Marsh Acker Jr.?
- President Ronald Reagan appointed William Marsh Acker Jr. to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama in 1982.
- Was William Marsh Acker Jr. appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- William Marsh Acker Jr. was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was William Marsh Acker Jr.'s confirmation vote?
- William Marsh Acker Jr. was confirmed by voice vote on August 18, 1982. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court was William Marsh Acker Jr. on?
- William Marsh Acker Jr. was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.
Sources
Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.
- FJC Biographical Directory
- Wikidata
- Portrait: Administrative Office of the United States Courts (Public domain), via Wikimedia Commons
- CourtListener bulk data (Free Law Project): authored opinions & citation counts
How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources
See something wrong? Report an error. Fixes are logged in the corrections log.
35 years on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).