William W. Caldwell
Appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1982 and confirmed by voice vote, William W. Caldwell was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. He earned a law degree from Dickinson School of Law (now Penn State Dickinson Law) in 1951. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Lived
- 1925–2019
- Appointed by
- Ronald Reagan, 1982
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- Dickinson College 1948 · Dickinson Law (now Penn State Dickinson Law) 1951
- Succeeded
- Robert Dixon Herman
- Succeeded by
- James Martin Munley
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1982 | Middle District of Pennsylvania succeeded Robert Dixon Herman | 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
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Caldwell was assigned 5,104 district-court cases (1979–2017). Median time from filing to termination: 166 days across 5,098 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 198 of Caldwell’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 173 were affirmed, 14 reversed or vacated, and 11 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, Caldwell authored 238 published opinions for the court (1982–2011). Most cited: City of Harrisburg v. International Surplus Lines Insurance (59 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1984 | City of Harrisburg v. International Surplus Lines Insurance | 596 F. Supp. 954 | 59 |
| 1990 | Palco Linings, Inc. v. Pavex, Inc. | 755 F. Supp. 1269 | 44 |
| 1995 | Windsor v. Librandi (In Re Librandi) | 183 B.R. 379 | 43 |
| 1982 | D'Iorio v. Adonizio | 554 F. Supp. 222 | 39 |
| 1989 | Federal Insurance v. Susquehanna Broadcasting Co. | 727 F. Supp. 169 | 32 |
| 1995 | Klinger v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance | 895 F. Supp. 709 | 29 |
| 1988 | Merry v. Westinghouse Electric Corp. | 684 F. Supp. 847 | 27 |
| 1993 | Rogers v. Mount Union Borough Ex Rel. Zook | 816 F. Supp. 308 | 26 |
| 1988 | Beaston v. Scotland School for Veterans' Children | 693 F. Supp. 234 | 25 |
| 1990 | Mann v. J.E. Baker Co. | 733 F. Supp. 885 | 23 |
| 1988 | Merry v. Westinghouse Electric Corp. | 684 F. Supp. 852 | 23 |
| 1991 | Seeger Ex Rel. Seeger v. Allstate Insurance | 776 F. Supp. 986 | 22 |
| 2000 | Two Rivers Terminal, L.P. v. Chevron USA, Inc. | 96 F. Supp. 2d 432 | 21 |
| 1983 | Kauffman v. Schweiker | 559 F. Supp. 372 | 21 |
| 1985 | Fishel v. Westinghouse Electric Corp. | 617 F. Supp. 1531 | 20 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 238 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 W. Caldwell?
- President Ronald Reagan appointed William W. Caldwell to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania in 1982.
- Was William W. Caldwell appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- William W. Caldwell was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was William W. Caldwell's confirmation vote?
- William W. Caldwell was confirmed by voice vote on March 18, 1982. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court was William W. Caldwell on?
- William W. Caldwell was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
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.
37 years on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).