Northern District of California / Appointed 1976 / Served to 2002

William Austin Ingram

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

Appointed by President Gerald Ford in 1976 and confirmed by voice vote, William Austin Ingram was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. He earned a law degree from University of Louisville School of Law (now Louis D. Brandeis School of Law) in 1950. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Lived
1924–2002
Appointed by
Gerald Ford, 1976
Confirmed
by voice vote
Education
University of Louisville Law (now Louis D. Brandeis School of Law) 1950

Federal judicial service

YearCourtAppointed byVote
1976Northern District of CaliforniaFord (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, Ingram was assigned 795 district-court cases (1978–1998). Median time from filing to termination: 424 days across 794 closed cases.

Contract20%
Civil rights15%
Prisoner & habeas13%
Labor & ERISA11%
Intellectual property9%
Antitrust, securities & banking7%
Other26%

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.

In our data, Ingram authored 40 published opinions for the court (1976–1995). Most cited: McFarland v. Memorex Corp. (81 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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

Showing the 15 most-cited of 40 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 Austin Ingram?
President Gerald Ford appointed William Austin Ingram to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in 1976.
Was William Austin Ingram appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
William Austin Ingram was appointed by President Gerald Ford, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was William Austin Ingram's confirmation vote?
William Austin Ingram was confirmed by voice vote on July 23, 1976. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court was William Austin Ingram on?
William Austin Ingram was 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

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25 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).