United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas

• Court
• Judges

Eastern District of Texas Fifth Circuit Chief: Leonard Davis Judges: 6 Posts: 8 Vacancies: 2 Active judges Clark • Crone • Gilstrap • Schell • Schneider Senior Judges Heartfield Magistrate Judges Bush • Craven • Everingham • Giblin • Guthrie • Heartfield• Hines • Love • Mazzant Former Judges

Key: (Numbers indicate % of seats vacant.) 0% 0%-10% 10%-25% 25%-40% More than 40%

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas is the United States district court with jurisdiction over the eastern part of Texas and is a part of the Fifth Circuit. The court's headquarters are in Tyler and has five subdivision offices in Beaumont, Lufkin, Marshall, Sherman, and Texarkana. The district covers 43 counties in Texas.

The United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas represents the United States in civil and criminal litigation in the court.

When decisions of the court are appealed, they are appealed to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals based in Downtown New Orleans at the John Minor Wisdom Federal Courthouse.

Vacancy warning level

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas's vacancy warning level is currently set at yellow. The court currently has two vacancies out of their eight posts, constituting 25% of their seats. There are no pending appointments for the district.

Jurisdiction

The Counties of the Eastern District of Texas (click for larger map)

The jurisdiction of the Eastern District of Texas consists of all the counties in the eastern part of the state of Texas.

There are six court divisions, each covering the following counties:

The Beaumont Division, covering Hardin, Jasper, Jefferson, Liberty, Newton and Orange Counties

The Lufkin Division, covering Angelina, Houston, Nacogdoches, Polk, Sabine, Shelby, San Augustine, Trinity and Tyler Counties

The Marshall Division, covering Camp, Cass, Harrison, Marion, Morris and Upshur Counties

The Sherman Division, covering Collin, Cooke, Denton, Grayson, Delta, Fannin, Hopkins and Lamar Counties

The Texarkana Division, covering Bowie, Franklin, Titus and Red River Counties

The Tyler Division, covering Anderson, Cherokee, Gregg, Henderson, Panola, Rains, Rusk, Smith, Van Zandt and Wood Counties

The court's headquarters are in Tyler and has five subdivision offices in Beaumont, Lufkin, Marshall, Sherman, and Texarkana. The district covers 43 counties in Texas.

When decisions of the court are appealed, they are appealed to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals based in Downtown New Orleans at the John Minor Wisdom Federal Courthouse.

Cases heard

The Eastern District of Texas has original jurisdiction over cases filed within its jurisdiction. These cases can include civil and criminal matters that fall under federal law.

Case load

Federal Court Case Load Statistics*

Year	Starting case load:	Cases filed:	Total cases:	Cases terminated:	Remaining cases:	Median time(Criminal)**:	Median time(Civil)**:	3 Year Civil cases#:	Vacant posts:##	Trials/Post
2010	3445	3599	7044	3345	3699	9.8	9.6	141(4.6%)	8.9	22
2009	3179	3725	6904	3455	3449	10.3	10.8	116(4.0%)	.0	22
2008	3352	3498	6850	3679	3171	9.6	9.2	76(2.9%)	.0	24
2007	3079	3873	6952	3572	3380	8.7	9.0	41(1.5%)	.0	18
2006	3035	3658	6693	3623	3070	9.2	9.0	80(3.2%)	.0	21

*All statistics are taken from the Official Federal Courts' Website and reflect the calendar year through September.    **Time in months from filing to completion. #This statistic includes cases which have been appealed in higher courts.    ##This is the total number of months that any all judicial posts had spent vacant that year.

Clerk's office

The Eastern District of Texas has six separate courthouses. The Clerk's office is open Monday through Friday 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m, excluding Federal holidays. Please consult the chart below for more information:

Branch	Address	Phone number
Beaumont Division	Jack Brooks Federal Building and United States Courthouse 300 Willow Street Suite 104 Beaumont, Texas 77701	409-654-7000
Lufkin Division	Ward R. Burke United States Courthouse 104 North Third Street Lufkin, Texas 75901	936-632-2739
Marshall Division	Sam B. Hall Jr. Federal Building and United States Courthouse 100 East Houston Street Room 125 Marshall, Texas 75670	903-935-2912
Sherman Division	United States Courthouse 7940 Preston Road Room 101 Plano, Texas 75024	214-872-4800
Texarkana Division	United States Courthouse and Post Office 500 North State Line Avenue PO Box 2090 Texarkana, Texas 75504	903-794-8561
Tyler Division (Headquarters)	William M. Steger Federal Building and United States Courthouse 211 West Ferguson Street Room 106 Tyler, Texas 75702	903-590-1000

History

Court history

On December 29, 1845, the state of Texas was organized as one judicial district. One judgeship was authorized for this U.S. district court, and being that it was not assigned to a judicial circuit, the district court was granted the same jurisdiction as the United States circuit courts, excluding appeals and writs of error, which are the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.

Texas was divided into two judicial districts, known as the Eastern District of Texas and the Western District of Texas, on February 21, 1857. One judgeship was authorized for the court in each district. Circuit court jurisdiction of the district court in Texas was repealed on July 15, 1862, and a U.S. circuit court was established for the district and assigned over to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Texas was then assigned to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on July 23, 1866.

The Northern District of Texas was established on February 24, 1879, with one judgeship authorized to the district court. On February 9, 1898, a temporary judgeship was authorized to the Northern District. However, the statute provided that any vacancy in the existing judgeship would not be filled.

A few years later, on March 11, 1902, the Southern District of Texas was established and one judgeship was authorized to this district court.

The Eastern District of Texas had 7 judicial posts added over time for a total of 8 current posts.

Judicial posts

The following table highlights the development of judicial posts for the Eastern District of Texas:

Year	Statute	Total Seats
December 29, 1845	9 Stat. 1	1
February 21, 1857	11 Stat. 164	1
February 10, 1954	68 Stat. 8	2
June 2, 1970	84 Stat. 294	3
October 20, 1978	92 Stat. 1629	4
July 10, 1984	98 Stat. 333	6
December 1, 1990	104 Stat. 5089	7
November 2, 2002	116 Stat. 1758	8

Notable cases

This page is missing notable case information.

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For a searchable list of opinions, please see Justia.com-Dockets and Filings-Eastern District of Texas.

Federal courthouse

Six separate courthouses serve the Eastern District of Texas.

Major news

For new stories and other related material see Texas judicial news.

See also

• United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit

External links

• United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas
• United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Texas
• Judges of the Eastern District of Texas
• Opinions of the Eastern District of Texas

References

Eastern District of Texas Fifth Circuit Chief: Leonard Davis Judges: 6 Posts: 8 Vacancies: 2 Active judges Clark • Crone • Gilstrap • Schell • Schneider Senior Judges Hearfield Magistrate Judges Bush • Craven • Everingham • Giblin • Guthrie • Heartfield• Hines • Love • Mazzant Former Judges

Key: (Numbers indicate % of seats vacant.) 0% 0%-10% 10%-25% 25%-40% More than 40%

Active judges

Article III judges

See: Article III federal judge
The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas has 8 posts and 2 vacancies. The current Chief Judge is Leonard Davis. This is a list of the current judges on the court:

Judge	Born	Home	Appointed by	Active	Chief	Preceeded	Bachelors	Law
Judge Ron Clark	1953	Caripito, Venezuela	W. Bush	10/10/2002- Present		Howell Cobb	U. of Connecticut, B.A., 1973	U. of Texas, J.D., 1979
Judge Marcia Crone	1952	Dallas, TX	W. Bush	10/3/2003 - Present		New Seat|116 Stat. 1758	U. of Texas, B.A., 1973	U. of Houston Law Center, J.D., 1978
Chief Judge Leonard Davis	1948	Fort Worth, TX	W. Bush	5/10/2002 - Present	2012 - Present	Paul Brown	U. of Texas, B.A., 1970	Baylor U. School of Law, J.D., 1976
Judge Richard Schell	1950	Dallas, TX	Reagan	6/6/1988 - Present	1994 - 2001	William Steger	Southern Methodist U., B.A., 1972	Southern Methodist U., J.D., 1975
Judge Michael Schneider	1943	San Antonio, TX	W. Bush	9/10/2004 - Present		John H. Hannah	Lon Morris College, A.A.; 1963; Stephen F. Austin State U., B.S., 1965	U. of Houston Law School, J.D.; 1970 U. of Virginia Law School, LL.M., 2001
Judge James Gilstrap	1957	Pensacola, FL	Obama	12/6/2011 - Present		Thad Heartfield	Baylor University, B.A., 1978	Baylor University School of Law, J.D., 1981

Pending appointments

There are no current pending appointments for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

Senior judges

See: Federal judges on senior status
The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas has 1 judge on senior status currently. This is a list of the current senior judges on the court:

Judge	Appointed by	Active	Chief	Senior	Bachelors	Law
Senior Judge Thad Heartfield	Clinton	3/17/1995 - 1/1/2010	2003 - 2009	1/1/2010 - Present	St. Mary`s University, B.A., 1962	St. Mary`s University School of Law, J.D., 1965

Magistrate judges

Judge	Active	Bachelors	Law
Magistrate Judge Amos Mazzant	01/09/2009 - Present	U. of Pittsburgh, B.A., 1987	Baylor Law, J.D., 1990
Magistrate Judge Don Bush
Magistrate Judge Caroline Craven
Magistrate Judge Keith Giblin	10/01/2004 - Present
Magistrate Judge Judith Guthrie
Magistrate Judge John Love	01/20/2006 - Present
Magistrate Judge Zack Hawthorn
Magistrate Judge Roy Payne

Past judges

Former Chief judges

Judge	Term
Joseph Sheehy	1954 - 1967
John H. Hannah	2001 - 2003
Joseph Fisher	1967 - 1980
William Justice	1980 - 1990
Richard Schell	1994 - 2001
David Folsom	2009 - 2012
Thad Heartfield	2003 - 2009
Robert Parker	1990 - 1994

In order to qualify for the office of Chief Judge in one of the federal courts, a judge must have been in active service on the court for at least one year, be under the age of 65, and have not previously served as Chief Judge. A vacancy in the office of Chief Judge is filled by the judge highest in seniority among the group of qualified judges. The Chief Judge serves for a term of seven years or until age 70, whichever occurs first. The age restrictions are waived if no members of the court would otherwise be qualified for the position. Unlike the Chief Justice of the United States, a Chief Judge returns to active service after the expiration of his or her term and does not create a vacancy on the bench by the fact of his or her promotion. See 28 U.S.C. § 45.

These rules for Chief Judges in the federal judiciary have been in effect since October 1, 1982. The office of Chief Judge was created in 1948. Until August 6, 1959, the position was filled in each federal court by the longest-serving judge who had not elected to retire on what has since 1958 been known as senior status or declined to serve as Chief Judge. From then until 1982 it was filled by the senior such judge who had not turned 70.

Former judges

1. John Charles Watrous
2. Amos Morrill
3. Joel Winch
4. Chauncey Brewer Sabin
5. Robert Parker
6. David Ezekiel Bryant
7. Gordon James Russell
8. William Lee Estes
9. David Folsom
10. T. John Ward
11. William Justice
12. Randolph Bryant
13. Paul Brown
14. Lamar Cecil
15. Howell Cobb
16. Joseph Fisher
17. Sam Hall
18. John H. Hannah
19. Joseph Sheehy
20. William Steger