Federal judiciary
Donald Eugene O'Brien
Judge, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa
Appointment
- Court
- U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa
- Title
- Judge
- Appointed by
- Jimmy CarterDemocratic president
- Seat
- IAND0202
- Nominated
- Sept. 27, 1978
- Committee hearing
- Oct. 4, 1978
- Committee action
- Reported (favorably)Oct. 4, 1978
- Senate vote
- Voice
- Confirmed
- Oct. 4, 1978
- Commissioned
- Oct. 5, 1978
- ABA rating
- Not Qualified
- Chief Judge from
- Jan. 1, 1985until Jan. 1, 1992
- Senior status
- Dec. 30, 1992
- Service ended
- Aug. 18, 2015Death
Source Federal Judicial Center, Biographical Directory of Article III Judges. Party shown is the party of the appointing president, which is a fact about the president, not about the judge.
Judicial service history
Every federal judicial office held, in order of appointment.
| Court | Title | Commissioned | Ended | Appointed by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa | Judge | Oct. 5, 1978 | Dec. 1, 1990 Reassignment | Jimmy Carter |
| U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa | Judge | Oct. 5, 1978 | Aug. 18, 2015 Death | Jimmy Carter |
Recent judicial activity
Opinions authored and panels sat on, most recent first.
- No recorded activity.
Cases
Appellate cases on which this judge sat, drawn from panel information published with each decision.
No panel assignments recorded in the ingested window.
Judicial writings
No writings are attributed to this judge in the ingested records.
Source Authorship is recorded only where the source data carries it. For recent Courts of Appeals opinions CourtListener frequently publishes the decision as a single document without naming the authoring judge, so an absence here means the attribution is unavailable upstream — not that the judge has written nothing.