In 1979, President Jimmy Carter nominated Patrick Eugene Carr to a new seat created by 92 Stat. 1629. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on September 25, 1979, and received his commission on September 26, 1979. He assumed senior status on October 1, 1991, and served in that capacity until his death on June 1, 1998.

Judge Carr was born in 1922 in Jasper County, Mississippi. He joined the Army Air Corps at the age of 19. He saw combat in World War II while serving as a United States Army Air Corps Sergeant from 1940 to 1945. He received an LL.B. from Loyola University New Orleans School of Law in 1950. He practiced law in Metairie, Louisiana, for 25 years until he became a judge on the 24th Judicial District Court, Parish of Jefferson, State of Louisiana in 1975. After serving four years as a state court judge, Judge Carr took the position on the federal bench, where he earned a reputation of handing out tough sentences in criminal cases.

In 1996, when Judge Carr sentenced a former treasurer of the Police Association of New Orleans to 21 months in prison for embezzling almost $200,000.00 from the organization, the judge said that the sentence served as "a notice to others that, if you conduct yourself in a similar manner, you're going to pay the penalty, too."

At his death, then Chief Judge Morey E. Sear of the U.S. District Court said that "Pat Carr was a judge's judge. He was a straight arrow on whom I could, and often did, depend for sound advice and guidance."