William G. Young
Appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1985 and confirmed by voice vote, William G. Young is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. He earned a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1967. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Born
- 1940 · age 86
- Appointed by
- Ronald Reagan, 1985
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- Harvard 1962 · Harvard Law School 1967
- Succeeded by
- Julia Eleanor Kobick
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | District of Massachusetts | Reagan (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
| Harvard University | A.B. | 1962 |
| Harvard Law School | LL.B. | 1967 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Young was assigned 8,716 district-court cases (1969–2026). Median time from filing to termination: 223 days across 8,382 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 538 of Young’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 414 were affirmed, 73 reversed or vacated, and 51 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, Young authored 730 published opinions for the court (1985–2011). Most cited: Wells v. Barnhart (151 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Wells v. Barnhart | 267 F. Supp. 2d 138 | 151 |
| 1998 | General Electric Co. v. United States Environmental Protection Agency | 18 F. Supp. 2d 138 | 108 |
| 2005 | Rakes v. United States | 352 F. Supp. 2d 47 | 91 |
| 2006 | Trezvant v. Fidelity Employer Services Corp. | 434 F. Supp. 2d 40 | 61 |
| 1989 | In Re Acushnet River & New Bedford Harbor: Proceedings Re Alleged PCB Pollution | 712 F. Supp. 1019 | 60 |
| 1993 | Branch v. Federal Deposit Insurance | 825 F. Supp. 384 | 59 |
| 1992 | In Re Bank of New England Corp. | 142 B.R. 584 | 54 |
| 1989 | In Re Acushnet River & New Bedford Harbor Proceedings Re Alleged PCB Pollution | 712 F. Supp. 1010 | 52 |
| 2001 | Musto v. Halter | 135 F. Supp. 2d 220 | 51 |
| 1987 | Kwiat v. Doucette | 81 B.R. 184 | 50 |
| 1987 | In Re Acushnet River & New Bedford Harbor Proceedings Re Alleged PCB Pollution | 675 F. Supp. 22 | 48 |
| 2005 | Christensen v. Kingston School Committee | 360 F. Supp. 2d 212 | 44 |
| 1997 | Andrews-Clarke v. Travelers Insurance | 984 F. Supp. 49 | 44 |
| 2004 | United States v. Green | 346 F. Supp. 2d 259 | 42 |
| 2000 | Fitzer v. Security Dynamics Technologies, Inc. | 119 F. Supp. 2d 12 | 41 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 730 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 G. Young?
- President Ronald Reagan appointed William G. Young to the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts in 1985.
- Was William G. Young appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- William G. Young was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was William G. Young's confirmation vote?
- William G. Young was confirmed by voice vote on April 3, 1985. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court is William G. Young on?
- William G. Young is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
Sources
Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.
- FJC Biographical Directory
- Wikidata
- Portrait: United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts (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.
41 years on the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).