Who appointed William Clark?

President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed William Clark to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in 1938.

Was William Clark appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?

William Clark was appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.

What was William Clark's confirmation vote?

The Senate confirmed William Clark 57–5 on June 16, 1938.

Third Circuit / Appointed 1938 / Served to 1942

William Clark

Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit

Appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1938 and confirmed by the Senate 57–5, William Clark was a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He earned a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1915. He previously served on the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey. Opinions & record ↓ Sources ↓

Lived: 1891–1957
Appointed by: Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1938
Confirmed: 57–5
Education: Harvard 1911 · Harvard Law School 1915
Succeeded: Joseph Whitaker Thompson
Succeeded by: Gerald McLaughlin

Federal judicial service

Year	Court	Appointed by	Vote
1925	District of New Jersey succeeded Charles Francis Lynch	Coolidge (R)	Voice vote
1938	Third Circuit succeeded Joseph Whitaker Thompson	F.D. Roosevelt (D)	57–5

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

The Senate’s published per-senator roll-call records begin in 1989, so no senator-by-senator breakdown is available for this vote.

Education

Harvard University	B.A.	1911
Harvard University	M.A.	1912
Harvard Law School	LL.B.	1915

Judicial Record

In our data, Clark authored 7 published opinions for the court (1927–1940). Most cited: United States v. Parker (15 citations).

Published, precedential opinions from the CourtListener corpus. Counts and rankings are objective and recomputable: how we count. We describe the record, not the judge.

Selected opinions

Year	Case	Citation	Cited
1937	United States v. Parker	19 F. Supp. 450	15
1938	Committee for Industrial Organization v. Hague	25 F. Supp. 127	10
1940	Caterpillar Tractor Co. v. International Harvester Co.	32 F. Supp. 304	9
1940	Steinbach Kresge Co. v. Sturgess	33 F. Supp. 897	8
1927	Tolfree v. Wetzler	22 F.2d 214	8
1928	United States v. Mayor and Council of City of Hoboken, NJ	29 F.2d 932	5
1930	In Re Pinals	38 F.2d 117	4

Showing the 7 most-cited of 7 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 Clark?: President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed William Clark to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in 1938.
Was William Clark appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?: William Clark was appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was William Clark's confirmation vote?: The Senate confirmed William Clark 57–5 on June 16, 1938.
Which court was William Clark on?: William Clark was a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Sources

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

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

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3 years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).