William Horsley Orrick Jr.
Appointed by President Richard M. Nixon in 1974 and confirmed by voice vote, William Horsley Orrick Jr. was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. He earned a law degree from University of California, Berkeley, School of Jurisprudence in 1941. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Lived
- 1915–2003
- Appointed by
- Richard M. Nixon, 1974
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- Yale 1937 · University of California, Berkeley, School of Jurisprudence 1941
- Succeeded
- William Thomas Sweigert
- Succeeded by
- Delwen Lowell Jensen
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1974 | Northern District of California succeeded William Thomas Sweigert | Nixon (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, Orrick was assigned 2,062 district-court cases (1978–2001). Median time from filing to termination: 233 days across 2,061 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.
In our data, Orrick authored 200 published opinions for the court (1974–2001). Most cited: Handgards, Inc. v. Johnson & Johnson (115 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1976 | Handgards, Inc. v. Johnson & Johnson | 413 F. Supp. 926 | 115 |
| 1979 | Boyd v. Bechtel Corp. | 485 F. Supp. 610 | 65 |
| 1993 | Patricia H. v. Berkeley Unified School District | 830 F. Supp. 1288 | 47 |
| 1979 | Mendelsohn v. Capital Underwriters, Inc. | 490 F. Supp. 1069 | 44 |
| 1974 | Ramirez v. Toko Kaiun K.K. | 385 F. Supp. 644 | 44 |
| 1991 | American States Insurance v. Canyon Creek | 786 F. Supp. 821 | 40 |
| 1977 | Matter of Essex Properties, Ltd. | 430 F. Supp. 1112 | 34 |
| 1979 | Hart v. County of Alameda | 485 F. Supp. 66 | 32 |
| 1979 | Towers v. Titus | 5 B.R. 786 | 31 |
| 1997 | Jones v. City and County of San Francisco | 976 F. Supp. 896 | 29 |
| 1976 | Lim v. Citizens Savings & Loan Ass'n | 430 F. Supp. 802 | 29 |
| 1987 | In Re Fortune Systems Securities Litigation | 680 F. Supp. 1360 | 28 |
| 1980 | National Federation of Federal Employees, Local 1263 v. Commandant, Defense Language Institute | 493 F. Supp. 675 | 27 |
| 1977 | Gallardo v. Westfal-Larsen & Co. A/S | 435 F. Supp. 484 | 27 |
| 1987 | Curry v. US, Small Business Admin. | 679 F. Supp. 966 | 26 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 200 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 Horsley Orrick Jr.?
- President Richard M. Nixon appointed William Horsley Orrick Jr. to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in 1974.
- Was William Horsley Orrick Jr. appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- William Horsley Orrick Jr. was appointed by President Richard M. Nixon, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was William Horsley Orrick Jr.'s confirmation vote?
- William Horsley Orrick Jr. was confirmed by voice vote on June 21, 1974. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court was William Horsley Orrick Jr. on?
- William Horsley Orrick Jr. 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.
- FJC Biographical Directory
- Wikidata
- 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.
29 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).