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News & Announcements

Check this page, or the News and Announcements box on the homepage, for the latest official news and announcements released by the court. You can also access archived news and announcements from this page.

March 14, 2025
Public Notice is hereby given of proposed amendments to the Rule for Lawyer Disciplinary Enforcement for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. View this PDF
March 14, 2025
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana held a naturalization ceremony in which 48 petitioners became United States citizens. The Honorable Greg G. Guidry, U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana, presided over the March 6 ceremony. He opened the ceremony by inviting everyone to stand for the playing of the National Anthem by the Marine Forces Reserve Band and the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance, led by representatives from the Daughters of the American Revolution. Judge Guidry then invited keynote speaker Annalisa Miron to provide remarks. Miron, a public defender at EDLA, reflected on her father’s naturalization at this courthouse in 1971. She encouraged the new citizens to embrace their new community through local organizations and elections. Miron emphasized the importance of exercising their freedoms as new citizens to make the country stronger. Peter Mansfield, Chief of the Civil Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office (EDLA), served as the Attorney General’s designee and certified the petitioners’ eligibility for citizenship. After granting the requests for name change, Judge Guidry had each petitioner announce their name and country of origin before case manager Dedra Pongracz administered the Oath of Allegiance. Petitioners were then given their certificates and took pictures with their families. To view photos from the ceremony, please select this link.
March 12, 2025
Please note that the Administrative Office is administering the written phase of the Federal Court Interpreter Certification Examination for interpreters of Spanish on May 5-19, 2025. Registration is from February 3 to May 2, 2025. Test candidates must pass the written exam to qualify for the oral exam. The oral phase will be administered August 4-18, 2025. Registration will be from June 23 to August 1, 2025. Written and oral examinations used to be held in alternating years; however, the Administrative Office is now offering both exams annually to increase the certified Spanish interpreter pool.
February 18, 2025
Our legal system is founded on the principles of fairness and equity, but statistical and anecdotal evidence prove that our courtrooms and law offices are not fair and equitable in the treatment of lawyers. In this CLE, numerous presenters (you will know many of them!) will act out common scenarios within legal organizations and legal culture—for example, a hiring committee meeting, mentorship assignments, junior attorney evaluations, and file-staffing or promotion discussions. Topics woven into the hypothetical situations will showcase things like affinity bias, performance bias, the maternal wall, and intersectionality.  A panel and the audience will comment on each scenario, share lived experiences, and provide concrete advice for how to handle similar situations in the future. Presenters include Judge Susie Morgan, Judge Darrel Papillion, Kelly Becker, Magdalen Blessey Bickford, Brandon Davis, Harold Flanagan, Valerie Fontenot, Amy McIntire, Kerry Miller, Rachel Naquin, Cayce Peterson, Brittany Reed, Bradley Schwab, Gerald "Jess" Waltman, Graham Williams, Rick Yelton, J. Christopher Zainey, Jr., Haley Zhu-Butler. The presentation will be moderated by Judge Janis van Meerveld, Chloé Chetta, and Atoyia Harris. This event is co-sponsored by The Eastern District of Louisiana, The New Orleans Chapter of the Federal Bar Association, The Association for Women Attorneys, The Greater New Orleans Louis A. Martinet Legal Society, The Louisiana State Bar Association Young Lawyers Division, and The New Orleans Bar Association. Register now using the link below or by scanning the QR code. Registration for Women's History Month CLE - A Seat at the Table
February 18, 2025
The Court completed a required upgrade to its CM/ECF system Saturday morning (Feb. 15). The update unexpectedly prevented attorneys from electronically filing pleadings between the mornings of February 15 and Tuesday, February 18, 2025. The Court has resolved the issue and apologizes for the outage. Attorneys are reminded to consult the Court’s administrative procedures for guidance concerning technical failures.
February 5, 2025
The Court has amended its Local Civil Rules to add Rule 83.5.1, which provides for a 21-day stay of any order transferring a case to a district court outside the Fifth Circuit in certain circumstances. The amendment is effective February 4, 2025. Here is the full text of the amendment: LOCAL CIVIL RULE 83.5.1    TRANSFER ORDERS       Unless all affected parties consent to the transfer, an order that transfers a case to a district court outside the Fifth Circuit is stayed for 21 days from the date the order is entered on the docket.  This rule does not apply to transfer orders of the United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. The Court’s order amending the Local Civil Rules can be found here. A copy of the complete Local Civil Rules can be found here.  
February 5, 2025
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana held a naturalization ceremony in which 24 petitioners became United States citizens. The Honorable Darrel J. Papillion, U.S. District Judge, presided over the January 28 ceremony. He welcomed and congratulated the petitioners and then invited everyone to stand for the playing of the National Anthem by the Marine Forces Reserve Band and the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance, led by representatives from the Daughters of the American Revolution.  Judge Papillion then invited keynote speakers Mr. David Abboud Thomas and Dr. Najeeb M. Thomas to provide remarks. The two brothers spoke of their experiences as grandchildren of Lebanese immigrants. David reflected lovingly on his grandmother’s American pride, while Dr. Thomas admired his grandparents’ brave journey to the U.S. to escape hardships and give their family more opportunities. “The U.S. is a patchwork quilt, stitched together by immigrant hands,” Dr. Thomas said.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Renee Goudeau then issued the statement of petitioners’ eligibility for citizenship and presented petitioners’ requests for name change. After granting the requests for name change, Judge Papillion invited the petitioners to announce their names and countries of origin before he administered the Oath of Allegiance. Petitioners were then given their certificates and took pictures with Judge Papillion and their families.  To view photos from the ceremony, please select this link. 
January 27, 2025
In honor of African American History Month, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana presents a virtual tour and engagement with the exhibit “Captive State: Louisiana and the Making of Mass Incarceration,” now on view at the Historic New Orleans Collection. Wednesday, February 12 from noon-1 pm, in Courtroom 501 and by Zoom. There is no charge for this 1-hour CLE with lunch provided to in-person attendees, but advance registration is required at https://forms.office.com/g/y28G0Exum2. Please see the Eastern District of Louisiana website, www.laed.uscourts.gov, for additional information and for updates. Special thanks to the Historic New Orleans Collection and to our co-sponsors: the New Orleans Bar Association, the New Orleans Chapter of the Federal Bar Association, the Greater New Orleans Louis A. Martinet Legal Society, and the New Orleans Chapter of the Association for Women Attorneys.
January 24, 2025
On November 20, 2024, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana and New Orleans Chapter of the Federal Bar Association presented the 33rd Annual Judge Alvin B. Rubin Symposium to a packed en banc courtroom, with many more joining via Zoom. As with the James Meredith case reenacted last year, the historic courtroom reenactment selected for this year’s Rubin Symposium—Vietnamese Fishermen vs. The Ku Klux Klan—also had strong ties to the geographic footprint of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, where Judge Rubin served with distinction for over a decade. The all-star cast featured Judge Darrel J. Papillion as plaintiffs’ attorney Morris Dees and Federal Public Defender Claude Kelly as antagonist Louis Beam, the college-educated Grand Dragon of the Texas Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. Chief Judge Nannette Jolivette Brown read from the Southern District of Texas’s early-1980s opinions enjoining the Klan’s unlawful threats and intimidation tactics against the Vietnamese fishermen around Galveston and closing Beam’s private paramilitary training programs in Texas.  The Symposium continued with a panel discussion led by U.S. Magistrate Judge Eva Dossier on the elusive concept of the rule of law – what it is, what it means for practitioners, and how it’s been historically challenged. The Rubin Symposium concluded with a reception in the lobby of the courthouse featuring a variety of delicious Vietnamese foods catered by Thanh Thanh Restaurant of Gretna.  Additional Photographs of the play can be seen here.
January 10, 2025
The New Orleans Chapter of the Federal Bar Association, along with the Family and Friends of the Honorable Helen “Ginger” Berrigan, will celebrate her life and legacy on Thursday, January 16, 2025, at 4:00 p.m., in the United States District Courthouse, 500 Poydras Street, Courtroom C-501, New Orleans, Louisiana.  The public is invited to attend.

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