District Judges

Supreme Court justices, court of appeals judges, and district court judges are nominated by the President and confirmed by the United States Senate, as stated in the Constitution. The names of potential nominees are often recommended by senators or sometimes by members of the House who are of the President's political party. The Senate Judiciary Committee typically conducts confirmation hearings for each nominee. Article III of the Constitution states that these judicial officers are appointed for a life term. The federal Judiciary, the Judicial Conference of the United States, and the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts play no role in the nomination and confirmation process.

While district judges are appointed for life, they can fully retire from the bench to pursue outside employment or take senior status where the judge remains on the bench, but may then have a smaller caseload. This also allows for a replacement district judge to be appointed to take over their active slot.

Below are the District Judges from the Eastern District of Louisiana, listed in order of their appointment dates.

	Judge	Appointed by	Years of Service	Reason for Termination
1	Dominic Augustin Hall¹	Jefferson Madison	June 1, 1812 - February 22, 1813 June 1, 1813 - December 19, 1820	Death
2	John Dick¹	Monroe	March 2, 1821 - April 23, 1824	Death
3	Thomas Bolling Robertson	Monroe	May 26, 1824 - October 5, 1828	Death
4	Samuel Hadden Harper	Jackson	March 7, 1829 - July 19, 1837	Death
5	Philip Kissick Lawrence	Van Buren	September 12, 1837 - March 19, 1841	Death
6	Theodore Howard McCaleb	Tyler	September 3, 1841 - January 28, 1861	Resignation
	Charles A. Peabody	Lincoln	October 20, 1862 - July 1865, after the fall of New Orleans during the Civil War, by proclamation, Lincoln established the United States Provisional Court for the State of Louisiana and named Peabody judge.	Congress's abolishment of the United States Provisional Court for the State of Louisiana
7	Edward Henry Durell	Lincoln	February 17, 1864 - December 4, 1874	Resignation
8	Edward Coke Billings	Grant	February 10, 1876 - December 1, 1893	Death
9	Charles Parlange	Cleveland	January 15, 1894 - February 4, 1907	Death
10	Eugene Davis Saunders	T. Roosevelt	February 20, 1907 - February 8, 1909	Resignation
11	Rufus Edward Foster	T. Roosevelt	February 2, 1909 - January 13, 1925	Appointment to United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
12	Charlton Reid Beattie	Coolidge	January 21, 1925 - August 23, 1925	Death
13	Louis Henry Burns	Coolidge	December 21, 1925 - June 9, 1928	Death
14	Wayne G. Borah	Coolidge	December 17, 1928 - October 23, 1949	Appointment to United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
15	Adrian Joseph Caillouet	F. D. Roosevelt	April 23, 1940 - December 19, 1946	Death
16	Herbert William Christenberry	Truman	December 20, 1947 - October 5, 1975	Death
17	James Skelly Wright	Truman	March 9, 1950 - April 15, 1962	Appointment to United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
18	Elmer Gordon West	Kennedy	September 15, 1961 - April 16, 1972	Reassignment to United States District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana
19	Robert Andrew Ainsworth, Jr.	Kennedy	September 22, 1961 - August 31, 1966	Appointment to United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
20	Frank Burton Ellis	Kennedy	April 12, 1962 - November 3, 1969	Death
21	Frederick Jacob Reagan Heebe	Johnson	March 26, 1966 - September 9, 1996	Retirement
22	Edward James Boyle, Sr.	Johnson	October 20, 1966 - July 24, 2002	Death
23	Fred James Cassibry	Johnson	November 3, 1966 - April 3, 1987	Retirement
24	Lansing Leroy Mitchell	Johnson	November 3, 1966 - April 24, 2001	Death
25	Alvin Benjamin Rubin	Johnson	November 3, 1966 - October 8, 1977	Appointment to United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
26	James August Comiskey	Johnson	March 4, 1967 - June 15, 1975	Resignation
27	Jack Murphy Gordon	Nixon	June 22, 1971 - March 4, 1982	Death
28	Roger Blake West	Nixon	June 22, 1971 - January 24, 1978	Death
29	Charles Schwartz, Jr.	Ford	May 7, 1976 - September 7, 2001	Retirement
30	Morey Leonard Sear	Ford	May 7, 1976 - September 6, 2004	Death
31	Robert Frederick Collins	Carter	May 19, 1978 - August 6, 1993	Resignation
32	Adrian Guy Duplantier, Sr.	Carter	May 31, 1978 - August 15, 2007	Death
33	George Arceneaux, Jr.	Carter	September 26, 1979 - April 6, 1993	Death
34	Patrick Eugene Carr	Carter	September 26, 1979 - June 1, 1998	Death
35	Veronica DiCarlo Wicker	Carter	September 26, 1979 - December 10, 1994	Death
36	Peter Hill Beer	Carter	November 27, 1979 - December 7, 2009	Retirement
37	A.J. McNamara	Reagan	June 21, 1982 - June 1, 2011	Retirement
38	Henry Alvan Mentz, Jr.	Reagan	June 25, 1982 - December 31, 2001	Retirement
39	Martin Leach-Cross Feldman	Reagan	October 5, 1983 - January 26, 2022	Death
40	Marcel Livaudais, Jr.	Reagan	September 18, 1984 - December 31, 2008	Retirement
41	Edith Brown Clement	G. H. W. Bush	November 25, 1991 - November 27, 2001	Appointment to United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
42	Helen Ginger Berrigan	Clinton	March 10, 1994 - August 23, 2016	Retirement
43	Stanwood R. Duval, Jr.	Clinton	September 29, 1994 - January 31, 2017	Retirement
44	Sarah S. Vance	Clinton	September 29, 1994 - present	Active (Senior)
45	Okla Jones, II	Clinton	October 11, 1994 - January 8, 1996	Death
46	G. Thomas Porteous, Jr.	Clinton	October 11, 1994 - December 8, 2010	Impeachment
47	Eldon E. Fallon	Clinton	May 10, 1995 - present	Active
48	Mary Ann Vial Lemmon	Clinton	July 25, 1996 - present	Active (Senior)
49	Ivan L.R. Lemelle	Clinton	April 7, 1998 - present	Active (Senior)
50	Carl J. Barbier	Clinton	October 1, 1998 - present	Active (Senior)
51	Kurt D. Engelhardt	G. W. Bush	December 13, 2001 - May 15, 2018	Appointment to United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
52	Jay C. Zainey	G. W. Bush	February 14, 2002 - present	Active
53	Lance M. Africk	G. W. Bush	April 17, 2002 - present	Active
54	Nannette Jolivette Brown	Obama	October 4, 2011 - present	Active
55	Jane Margaret Triche-Milazzo	Obama	October 12, 2011 - present	Active
56	Susie Morgan	Obama	March 30, 2012 - present	Active
57	Barry W. Ashe	Trump	September 5, 2018 - present	Active
58	Wendy B. Vitter	Trump	May 30, 2019 - present	Active
59	Greg G. Guidry	Trump	June 24, 2019 - present	Active
60	Darrel James Papillion	Biden	June 2, 2023 - present	Active
61	Brandon S. Long	Biden	December 21, 2023 - present	Active

¹Judge Hall, Dick Detail from:
Christian Schussele (1824-1879)
Andrew Jackson Before Judge Hall (New Orleans) 1859
Oil on canvas
Framed: 57 1/4 x 74 1/4 x 5 1/2 in. (145.4 x 188.6 x 14 cm)
GM 0126.2023
Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma

United States District Court

Eastern District of Louisiana

The Honorable Nannette Jolivette Brown, Chief Judge
Carol L. Michel, Clerk of Court

You are here