Who appointed William Haskell Alsup?

President William J. Clinton appointed William Haskell Alsup to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in 1999.

Was William Haskell Alsup appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?

William Haskell Alsup was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.

What was William Haskell Alsup's confirmation vote?

William Haskell Alsup was confirmed by voice vote on July 30, 1999. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.

Northern District of California / Appointed 1999 / Senior status since 2021

William Haskell Alsup

Judge, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

Appointed by President William J. Clinton in 1999 and confirmed by voice vote, William Haskell Alsup is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. He earned a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1971. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Born: 1945 · age 81
Appointed by: William J. Clinton, 1999
Confirmed: by voice vote
Education: Mississippi State 1967 · Harvard Law School 1971
Succeeded: Thelton Eugene Henderson
Succeeded by: Jacqueline Scott Corley

Federal judicial service

Year	Court	Appointed by	Vote
1999	Northern District of California succeeded Thelton Eugene Henderson	Clinton (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

Mississippi State University	B.S.	1967
Harvard Law School	J.D.	1971
Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government	M.P.P.	1971

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Alsup was assigned 5,205 district-court cases (1979–2025). Median time from filing to termination: 196 days across 5,158 closed cases.

Prisoner & habeas15%

Civil rights14%

Intellectual property12%

Other federal statutes10%

Contract10%

Personal-injury torts9%

Other31%

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 362 of Alsup’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 267 were affirmed, 47 reversed or vacated, and 48 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, Alsup authored 125 published opinions for the court (1999–2011). Most cited: Falk v. General Motors Corp. (162 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
2007	Falk v. General Motors Corp.	496 F. Supp. 2d 1088	162
1999	In Re Network Associates, Inc., Securities Litigation	76 F. Supp. 2d 1017	71
2007	In Re Graphics Processing Units Antitrust Litigation	527 F. Supp. 2d 1011	62
2011	Xavier v. Philip Morris USA Inc.	787 F. Supp. 2d 1075	47
2007	In Re CNET Networks, Inc. Shareholder Derivative Litigation	483 F. Supp. 2d 947	34
2010	Boon Rawd Trading International Co. v. Paleewong Trading Co.	688 F. Supp. 2d 940	32
2009	Hafiz v. Greenpoint Mortage Funding, Inc.	652 F. Supp. 2d 1039	30
2007	In Re Zoran Corp. Derivative Litigation	511 F. Supp. 2d 986	29
2001	In Re Northpoint Communications Group, Inc., Securities Litigation	184 F. Supp. 2d 991	24
2009	Apple Inc. v. Psystar Corp.	673 F. Supp. 2d 943	22
2002	In Re Northpoint Communications Group, Inc., Securities Litigation	221 F. Supp. 2d 1090	22
2008	Apple, Inc. v. Psystar Corp.	586 F. Supp. 2d 1190	21
2010	Gutierrez v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.	730 F. Supp. 2d 1080	20
2007	Van Slyke v. Capital One Bank	503 F. Supp. 2d 1353	20
2007	In Re Graphics Processing Units Antitrust Litigation	540 F. Supp. 2d 1085	19

Showing the 15 most-cited of 125 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 Haskell Alsup?: President William J. Clinton appointed William Haskell Alsup to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in 1999.
Was William Haskell Alsup appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?: William Haskell Alsup was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was William Haskell Alsup's confirmation vote?: William Haskell Alsup was confirmed by voice vote on July 30, 1999. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court is William Haskell Alsup on?: William Haskell Alsup is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

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.

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