United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi

	Northern District of Mississippi
	Fifth Circuit
	;
	Active judges
	Aycock
	Senior Judges
	Biggers • Davidson
	Magistrate Judges
	Davis • Alexander • Sanders
	Former Judges

	Northern District of Mississippi
	Fifth Circuit
	;
	Active judges
	Aycock
	Senior Judges
	Biggers • Davidson
	Magistrate Judges
	Davis • Alexander • Sanders
	Former Judges

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Court
Judges

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

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 Mississippi is a United States district court in the Fifth Circuit.

The United States Attorney for the Northern District of Mississippi 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 Northern District of Mississippi's vacancy warning level is currently set at orange. The court currently has one vacancy for its three posts.

Jurisdiction

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

The geographic jurisdiction of the Northern District of Mississippi consists of all the following counties in the northern part of the state of Mississippi.

The jurisdiction of the court includes facilities in Aberdeen, Ackerman, Clarksdale, Cleveland, Corinth and Greenville.

Cases heard

The Northern District of Mississippi 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	1183	1029	2212	1070	1142	12.6	10.9	121(13.2%)	0	26
2009	1231	1010	2241	1030	1211	12.4	12.4	117(11.8%)	0	28
2008	1483	1130	2613	1370	1243	9.9	16.6	30(2.8%)	.1	25
2007	1519	1159	2678	1192	1486	9.0	12.4	280(21.3%)	4	20
2006	1601	1321	2922	1367	1555	8.6	12.3	286(20.7%)	0	26

^*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 Mississippi has four divisions with three separate courthouses. Please consult the chart below for more information on individual courthouses:

Courthouse	Counties served	Physical Address	Mailing Address	Phone and Fax number	Office hours
Aberdeen	Alcorn, Attala, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Clay, Itawamba, Lee, Lowndes, Monroe, Oktibbeha, Prentiss, Tishomingo, Winston.	Thomas G. Abernathy Federal Building 301 W. Commerce St. Aberdeen, MS 39730	P.O. Box 704 Aberdeen, MS 39730	Phone: (662) 369-4952	M-F 8:00 am - 5:00 pm Closed 12:00 pm - 1:00pm
Greenville	Carroll, Humphreys, Leflore, Sunflower, and Washington.	United States District Court 305 Main Street - Room 329 Greenville, MS 38701		Phone:(662) 234-1971	Appointment only
Oxford	Bolivar, Coahoma, Desoto, Panola, Quitman, Tallahatchie, Tate, and Tunica.	Room 369 Federal Building 911 Jackson Avenue Oxford, MS 38655		Phone: (662) 234-1971	M-F 8:00 am - 5:00 pm

History

Court history

Federal courts in Mississippi were established by Congress on April 3, 1818 with one post to cover the entire state. On June 18, 1838 Congress divided the district into the Northern District of Mississippi and the Southern District of Mississippi. Over time, two additional judicial posts were added to the Northern District for the current total of three.^[1]

Judicial posts

The following table highlights the development of judicial posts for the Northern District of Mississippi:

Year	Statute	Total Seats
April 3, 1818	3 Stat. 413	1(Whole State)
June 18, 1838	5 Stat. 247	1(Shared)
March 1, 1929	45 Stat. 1422	1
March 18, 1966	80 Stat. 75	2
July 10, 1984	98 Stat. 333	3

^[1]

Notable cases

This page is missing notable case information.

For a searchable list of opinions, please see Opinions of the Southern District of Mississippi.

Federal courthouse

The Northern District of Mississippi has three federal courthouse.

Major news

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

External links

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 FJC History of the Districts of Mississippi

Share this Court:

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

Contents

1 Court
2 Judges
2.1 Active Judges
2.1.1 Article III judges
2.1.2 Pending appointments
2.1.3 Senior judges
2.2 Past judges
2.2.1 Former Chief judges
2.2.2 Former judges

Active judges

Article III judges

See: Article III federal judge
The United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi has 3 posts and 1 vacancy. The current Chief Judge is Robert James. This is a list of the current judges on the court:

Judge	Born	Home	Appointed by	Active	Chief	Preceeded	Bachelors	Law
Chief Judge Michael Mills	1956	Charleston, SC	W. Bush	10/11/2001 - Present	2007 - Present	Neal Biggers	U. of Mississippi, B.A., 1978	U. of Mississippi Law, J.D., 1980
Judge Sharion Aycock	1955	Tupelo, MS	W. Bush	10/22/2007 - Present		Glen Davidson	Mississippi State U., B.A., 1977	Mississippi College Law, J.D., 1980

Pending appointments

There are no current pending appointments for the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi.

Senior judges

See: Federal judges on senior status
The United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi has 2 judges 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 Neal Biggers	Reagan	03/28/1984 - 09/30/2000	1998 - 2000	10/01/2000 - Present	Millsaps College, B.A., 1956	U. of Mississippi Law School, J.D., 1963
Senior Judge Glen Davidson	Reagan	10/17/1985 - 05/31/2007	2000 - 2007	06/01/2007 - Present	U. of Mississippi, B.A., 1962	U. of Mississippi Law, J.D., 1965

Magistrate judges

Judge	Active	Bachelors	Law
Magistrate Judge Allan Alexander
Magistrate Judge David Sanders
Magistrate Judge Jane Virden	06/13/2011 - Present

Past judges

Former Chief judges

Judge	Term
Claude Feemster Clayton	1966 - 1967
William Colbert Keady	1968 - 1982
Glen Davidson	2000 - 2007
Neal Biggers	1998 - 2000
Lyonel Senter	1982 - 1998

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.