William K. Sessions III
Appointed by President William J. Clinton in 1995 and confirmed by voice vote, William K. Sessions III is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont. He earned a law degree from George Washington University Law School in 1972. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Born
- 1947 · age 79
- Appointed by
- William J. Clinton, 1995
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- Middlebury College 1969 · George Washington Law School 1972
- Succeeded
- Fred I. Parker
- Succeeded by
- Geoffrey William Crawford
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | District of Vermont succeeded Fred I. Parker | Clinton (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
| Middlebury College | B.A. | 1969 |
| George Washington University Law School | J.D. | 1972 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Sessions was assigned 2,985 district-court cases (1982–2026). Median time from filing to termination: 252 days across 2,866 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 118 of Sessions’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 102 were affirmed, 8 reversed or vacated, and 8 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, Sessions authored 213 published opinions for the court (1995–2011). Most cited: United States v. Fell (35 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | United States v. Fell | 217 F. Supp. 2d 469 | 35 |
| 1998 | United States v. Hunter | 13 F. Supp. 2d 574 | 33 |
| 1999 | Grieve v. General American Life Insurance | 58 F. Supp. 2d 319 | 28 |
| 2000 | Landell v. Sorrell | 118 F. Supp. 2d 459 | 22 |
| 2002 | Blanchard v. Eli Lilly & Co. | 207 F. Supp. 2d 308 | 20 |
| 2002 | Riendeau v. Canney (In Re Riendeau) | 293 B.R. 832 | 19 |
| 2002 | Vermont Public Interest Research Group v. United States Fish & Wildlife Service | 247 F. Supp. 2d 495 | 17 |
| 2001 | Kent v. Katz | 146 F. Supp. 2d 450 | 16 |
| 1996 | Glinka v. Abraham and Rose Company Ltd. | 199 B.R. 484 | 16 |
| 2001 | Wolinsky v. Maynard (In Re Maynard) | 269 B.R. 535 | 15 |
| 1999 | Vermont Electric Power Co. v. Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection & Insurance | 72 F. Supp. 2d 441 | 14 |
| 1998 | Vermont Assembly of Home Health Agencies, Inc. v. Shalala | 18 F. Supp. 2d 355 | 14 |
| 1998 | Couture v. Burlington Housing Authority (In Re Couture) | 225 B.R. 58 | 14 |
| 1997 | Kessler v. Loftus | 994 F. Supp. 240 | 14 |
| 1996 | Billado v. Parry | 937 F. Supp. 337 | 14 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 213 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 K. Sessions III?
- President William J. Clinton appointed William K. Sessions III to the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont in 1995.
- Was William K. Sessions III appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- William K. Sessions III was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was William K. Sessions III's confirmation vote?
- William K. Sessions III was confirmed by voice vote on August 11, 1995. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court is William K. Sessions III on?
- William K. Sessions III is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont.
Sources
Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.
- FJC Biographical Directory
- Wikidata
- Portrait: 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.
31 years on the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).