William Joseph Nealon Jr.
Appointed by President John F. Kennedy in 1963 and confirmed by voice vote, William Joseph Nealon Jr. was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. He earned a law degree from Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law in 1950. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Lived
- 1923–2018
- Appointed by
- John F. Kennedy, 1963
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- Villanova College 1947 · Catholic of America, Columbus Law 1950
- Succeeded
- John William Murphy
- Succeeded by
- James Focht McClure Jr.
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1963 | Middle District of Pennsylvania succeeded John William Murphy | Kennedy (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
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Nealon was assigned 4,263 district-court cases (1977–2017). Median time from filing to termination: 154 days across 4,263 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 169 of Nealon’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 152 were affirmed, 14 reversed or vacated, and 3 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, Nealon authored 266 published opinions for the court (1963–2008). Most cited: Farmer v. Carlson (113 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | Farmer v. Carlson | 685 F. Supp. 1335 | 113 |
| 1989 | United States v. Marisol, Inc. | 725 F. Supp. 833 | 93 |
| 1987 | Ogden v. Bowen | 677 F. Supp. 273 | 74 |
| 1970 | Pennsylvania Environmental Council, Inc. v. Bartlett | 315 F. Supp. 238 | 63 |
| 1990 | United States v. Hall | 730 F. Supp. 646 | 47 |
| 1989 | Lutz v. Chromatex, Inc. | 718 F. Supp. 413 | 47 |
| 1987 | Manion v. N.P.W. Medical Center of N.E. Pennsylvania, Inc. | 676 F. Supp. 585 | 47 |
| 1987 | Galgay v. Gangloff | 677 F. Supp. 295 | 45 |
| 1979 | Patton v. Fenton | 491 F. Supp. 156 | 41 |
| 1988 | Nottingham v. Peoria | 709 F. Supp. 542 | 34 |
| 1978 | Rusack v. Harsha | 470 F. Supp. 285 | 34 |
| 1972 | Wasnowic v. Chicago Board of Trade | 352 F. Supp. 1066 | 34 |
| 1984 | Herman v. Welland Chemical, Ltd. | 580 F. Supp. 823 | 27 |
| 2008 | In Re Cargill Meat Solutions Wage & Hour Litigation | 632 F. Supp. 2d 368 | 26 |
| 1989 | Lutz v. Chromatex, Inc. | 725 F. Supp. 258 | 26 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 266 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 Joseph Nealon Jr.?
- President John F. Kennedy appointed William Joseph Nealon Jr. to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania in 1963.
- Was William Joseph Nealon Jr. appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- William Joseph Nealon Jr. was appointed by President John F. Kennedy, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was William Joseph Nealon Jr.'s confirmation vote?
- William Joseph Nealon Jr. was confirmed by voice vote on March 15, 1963. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court was William Joseph Nealon Jr. on?
- William Joseph Nealon Jr. 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.
55 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).