William Earl Britt
Appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1980 and confirmed by voice vote, William Earl Britt is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. He earned a law degree from Wake Forest College School of Law in 1958. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Born
- 1932 · age 94
- Appointed by
- Jimmy Carter, 1980
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- Wake Forest College 1956 · Wake Forest College Law 1958
- Succeeded
- John Davis Larkins Jr.
- Succeeded by
- James C. Dever III
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | Eastern District of North Carolina succeeded John Davis Larkins Jr. | Carter (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
| Wake Forest College | B.S. | 1956 |
| Wake Forest College School of Law | LL.B. | 1958 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Britt was assigned 5,321 district-court cases (1971–2025). Median time from filing to termination: 202 days across 5,320 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 329 of Britt’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 279 were affirmed, 32 reversed or vacated, and 18 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, Britt authored 177 published opinions for the court (1980–2011). Most cited: Brooks v. Pembroke City Jail (169 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | Brooks v. Pembroke City Jail | 722 F. Supp. 1294 | 169 |
| 1985 | United States v. Ward | 618 F. Supp. 884 | 114 |
| 1994 | Shaw v. Hunt | 861 F. Supp. 408 | 48 |
| 1991 | Perlow v. Perlow | 128 B.R. 412 | 46 |
| 1986 | Weft, Inc. v. G.C. Investment Associates | 630 F. Supp. 1138 | 44 |
| 1995 | North Carolina Ex Rel. Howes v. Peele | 889 F. Supp. 849 | 37 |
| 2002 | Wilson v. Dryvit Systems, Inc. | 206 F. Supp. 2d 749 | 36 |
| 1999 | Wm. C. Vick Construction Co. v. Pennsylvania National Mutual Casualty Insurance | 52 F. Supp. 2d 569 | 36 |
| 2007 | United States v. Comstock | 507 F. Supp. 2d 522 | 33 |
| 1985 | Richardson v. Pitt County (In Re Stroud Wholesale, Inc.) | 47 B.R. 999 | 33 |
| 1982 | Cottman Transmissions, Inc. v. Holland Enterprises, Inc. (In Re Holland Enterprises, Inc.) | 25 B.R. 301 | 28 |
| 1999 | Smith v. Raleigh District of the North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church | 63 F. Supp. 2d 694 | 26 |
| 1996 | Merritt v. United States | 930 F. Supp. 1109 | 25 |
| 1983 | Juvenile Products Manufacturers Ass'n v. Edmisten | 568 F. Supp. 714 | 25 |
| 1992 | Marler v. Amoco Oil Co., Inc. | 793 F. Supp. 656 | 23 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 177 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 Earl Britt?
- President Jimmy Carter appointed William Earl Britt to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina in 1980.
- Was William Earl Britt appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- William Earl Britt was appointed by President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was William Earl Britt's confirmation vote?
- William Earl Britt was confirmed by voice vote on May 21, 1980. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court is William Earl Britt on?
- William Earl Britt is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
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.
46 years on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).