United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama

	Northern District of Alabama
	Eleventh Circuit
	;
	Active judges
	Bowdre • Coogler • Hopkins • Kallon • Proctor • Smith
	Senior Judges
	Acker • Guin • Hancock • Johnson • Propst
	Magistrate Judges
Chief Magistrate:	John Ott
	Armstrong • Davis • Haikala • Putnam
	Former Judges

	Northern District of Alabama
	Eleventh Circuit
	;
	Active judges
	Bowdre • Coogler • Hopkins • Kallon • Proctor • Smith
	Senior Judges
	Acker • Guin • Hancock • Johnson • Propst
	Magistrate Judges
Chief Magistrate:	John Ott
	Armstrong • Davis • Haikala • Putnam
	Former Judges

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Court
Judges

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(Numbers indicate % of seats vacant.)
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10%-25%	25%-40%
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Contents

1 Court
1.1 Vacancy warning level
1.2 Jurisdiction
1.2.1 Cases heard
1.2.2 Case load
1.3 Clerk's office
1.4 History
1.4.1 Court history
1.4.2 Judicial posts
1.4.3 Notable decisions
1.4.4 Federal courthouse
1.5 Major news
1.6 See also
1.7 External links
1.8 References
2 Judges

The United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama is a United States district court

Vacancy warning level

The United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama's vacancy warning level is currently set at yellow. The court currently has one vacancy and one pending appointment.

Jurisdiction

The Counties of the Northern District of Alabama (click for larger map)

The jurisdiction of the Northern District of Alabama consists of all the counties in the northern part of the state of Alabama.

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

The Eastern Division, covering Calhoun, Clay, Cleburne and Talladega Counties

The Jasper Division, covering Fayette, Lamar, Marion, Walker and Winston Counties

The Middle Division, covering Cherokee, Etowah, DeKalb, Marshall and St. Clair Counties

The Northeastern Division, covering Cullman, Jackson, Lawrence, Limestone, Madison and Morgan Counties

The Northwestern Division, covering Colbert, Franklin and Lauderdale Counties

The Southern Division, covering Blount, Jefferson and Shelby Counties

The Western Division, covering Bibb, Greene, Pickens, Sumter and Tuscaloosa Counties

It has jurisdiction over the cities of Birmingham, Huntsville, Tuscaloosa, and Decatur.

When decisions of the court are appealed, they are appealed to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals based in Downtown Atlanta at the Elbert P. Tuttle Federal Courthouse.

Cases heard

The Northern District of Alabama 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	3560	3899	7459	4119	3340	7.0	13.9	114(3.8%)	1.7	23
2009	3940	3168	7108	3561	3547	6.9	11.7	98(3.1%)	7.9	26
2008	4091	2999	7090	3172	3918	7.0	8.8	83(2.3%)	0	28
2007	2808	5408	8216	4062	4154	6.7	5.7	49(1.3%)	0	24
2006	3157	3336	6493	3738	2755	6.5	9.6	171(7.1%)	0	23

^*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 Northern District of Alabama has seven separate courthouses. Sharon Harris is the official clerk of court. Please consult the chart below for more information:

Branch	Address
Anniston Division	Anniston Courthouse 204 U.S. Courthouse 1129 Noble Street Anniston, AL 36201.
Birmingham Division	Hugo Black Courthouse 1729 5th Avenue North Birmingham AL 35203.
Decatur Division	US Post Office & Courthouse 400 Wells Street Decatur AL, 35601.
Florence Division	John McKinley Federal Building 210 North Seminary Street, Room 311 Florence AL, 35630.
Gadsden Division	206 Federal Building 600 Broad Street Gadsden AL 35901.
Huntsville Division	302 Federal Courthouse 101 Holmes Avenue Huntsville AL, 35801.
Tuscaloosa Division	304 Federal Building 1118 Greensboro Avenue Tuscaloosa AL, 35401.

^[1]

History

Court history

The District of Alabama was established by Congress on April 21, 1820 with one post to cover the entire state. On March 10, 1824 Congress divided the district into the Northern District of Alabama and the Southern District of Alabama with one judicial post for each district. Over time 7 additional judicial posts were added for a total of 8 current posts.^[2]

Judicial posts

The following table highlights the development of judicial posts for the Southern District of Alabama:

Year	Statute	Total Seats
April 21, 1820	3 Stat. 564	1(District of Alabama)
March 10, 1824	4 Stat. 9	1
February 25, 1907	34 Stat. 931	2
June 5, 1936	49 Stat. 1476	1(Reassigned)
March 26, 1938	52 Stat. 120	2(Temporary)
December 1938	Temporary expired	1
December 24, 1942	56 Stat. 1092	2
May 19, 1961	75 Stat. 80	3
June 2, 1970	84 Stat. 294	4
October 20, 1978	92 Stat. 1629	7
December 1, 1990	104 Stat. 5089	8(Temporary)
c1996	Temporary post expired	7
November 2, 2002	116 Stat. 1758	8(Temporary)

^[2]

Notable cases

For a searchable list of opinions, please see Opinions of the Northern District of Alabama.

• Alabama bingo case Judge(s):Charles Smith *Department of Texas Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States v. Dorning Civil Action No. 07-S-2144-NE
Judge Smith presided in a case over the constitutionality of bingo games in Alabama. Smith ruled that a Texas veteran's group was violating an amendment to the Alabama Constitution over casino style bingo machines. Bingo is considered illegal in Alabama unless a county passes a separate constitutional amendment legalizing it. ^[3]

• Mary Buckelew case Judge(s):Inge Johnson *USA v. Buckelew 2:08-cr-00357-IPJ-HGD
Judge Johnson was the presiding judge in the trial of former Jefferson County Alabama Commissioner Mary Buckelew. Buckelew pleaded guilty to lying to a federal grand jury about accepting gifts from an investment banker while in office. The former commissioner avoided jail time in which she was sentenced to probation and community service.^[4]

Federal courthouse

Major news

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

External links

References

Share this Court:

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

Since the court was established, 35 Article III federal judges have served on it.^[1]

Active judges

Article III judges

See: Article III federal judge
The United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama has 7 posts and 1 vacancy. The current Chief Judge is Sharon Blackburn. This is a list of the current judges on the court:

Judge	Born	Home	Appointed by	Active	Chief	Preceeded	Bachelors	Law
Chief Judge Sharon Blackburn	1950	Pensacola, FL	H.W. Bush	5/30/1991 - Present	2006 - Present	New Seat\|104 Stat. 5089	U. of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, B.A., 1973	Samford U. Law, J.D., 1977
Judge Charles Smith	1943	Talladega, AL	Clinton	12/26/1995 - Present		Elbert Haltom	U. of Alabama, B.A., 1966	U. of Alabama Law, J.D., 1971
Judge Karon Bowdre	1955	Montgomery, AL	W. Bush	11/8/2001 - Present		Sam Pointer	Samford U., B.A., 1977	Samford U. Law, J.D., 1981
Judge Scott Coogler	1959	Nantucket, MA	W. Bush	5/28/2003 - Present		Dean Buttram Jr.	U. of Alabama, B.A., 1981	U. of Alabama Law, J.D., 1984
Judge David Proctor	1960	Atlanta, GA	W. Bush	9/22/2003 - Present		New Seat\|116 Stat. 1758	Carson-Newman College, B.A., 1983	U. of Tennessee Law, J.D., 1986
Judge Virginia Hopkins	1952	Anniston, AL	W. Bush	6/17/2004 - Present		Edwin Nelson	U. of Alabama, B.A., 1974	U. of Virginia Law, J.D., 1977
Judge Abdul Kallon	1969	Freetown, Sierra Leone	Obama	1/4/2010 - Present		U. W. Clemon	Dartmouth College, A.B., 1990	U. of Pennsylvania Law, J.D., 1993

Pending appointments

The United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama has 1 appointee pending and 1 vacancy. This is a list of the current pending appointees to the court:

Judge	Confirmation	Bachelors	Law
Madeline Haikala		Williams College, 1986	Tulane University Law School, 1989

Senior judges

See: Federal judges on senior status
The United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama has 5 judges on senior status currently. This is a list of the current senior judges on the court:

Judge	Appointed by	Active	Senior	Bachelors	Law
Senior Judge James Hancock	Nixon	4/17/1973 - 5/1/1996	5/1/1996 - Present	University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, B.S., 1953	University of Alabama School of Law, LL.B., 1957
Senior Judge Foy Guin	Nixon	4/18/1973 - 2/3/1989	2/3/1989 - Present		University of Alabama School of Law, J.D., 1947
Senior Judge Robert Propst	Carter	5/30/1980 - 7/15/1996	7/15/1996 - Present	University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, B.S., 1953	University of Alabama School of Law, J.D., 1957
Senior Judge William Acker	Reagan	8/18/1982 - 5/31/1996	5/31/1996 - Present	Birmingham-Southern College, B.A., 1949	Yale Law, LL.B., 1952
Senior Judge Inge Johnson	Clinton	10/9/1998 - 10/24/2012	10/24/2012 - Present		U. of Alabama Law, J.D., 1973

Magistrate judges

Judge	Active	Bachelors	Law
Magistrate Judge Michael Putnam
Magistrate Judge Robert Armstrong, Jr.
Magistrate Judge Harwell Davis	03/19/1998 - Present
Chief Magistrate Judge John Ott
Magistrate judge Madeline Haikala	10/01/2012-present	Williams College, 1986	Tulane University Law School, 1989

Past judges

Former Chief judges

Judge	Term
Sam Pointer	1982-1999
Clarence Mullins	1948-1953
Frank McFadden	1973-1982
Seybourn Lynne	1953 - 1973
U. W. Clemon	1999-2006

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.