United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma

	Western District of Oklahoma
	Tenth Circuit
	;
	Active judges
	Cauthron • DeGiusti • Friot • Heaton • Payne • Russell
	Senior Judges
	Alley • Leonard • West
	Magistrate Judges
	Argo • Roberts • Purcell • Couch • Bacharach • Erwin
	Former Judges

	Western District of Oklahoma
	Tenth Circuit
	;
	Active judges
	Cauthron • DeGiusti • Friot • Heaton • Payne • Russell
	Senior Judges
	Alley • Leonard • West
	Magistrate Judges
	Argo • Roberts • Purcell • Couch • Bacharach • Erwin
	Former Judges

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Court
Judges

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Key:
(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 Western District of Oklahoma is a United States district court

Vacancy warning level

The United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma's vacancy warning level is currently set at green. The court currently has no vacancies, with all of the posts currently filled.

Jurisdiction

The Counties of the Western District of Oklahoma (click for larger map)

The jurisdiction of the Western District of Oklahoma consists of all the counties in the western part of the state of Oklahoma.

The court sits at Chickasha, Enid, Guthrie, Lawton, Mangum, Oklahoma City, Pauls Valley, Ponca City, Shawnee, and Woodward.

When decisions of the court are appealed, they are appealed to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals based in Downtown Denver at the Byron White Federal Courthouse.

Cases heard

The Western District of Oklahoma 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	1422	1920	3342	1829	1513	7.1	8.5	56(4.6%)	0	14
2009	1339	1888	3227	1802	1425	6.4	8.0	48(4%)	0	13
2008	1312	1808	3120	1794	1326	6.9	8.3	36(3.2%)	0	12
2007	1260	1950	3210	1886	1324	6.5	8.0	20(1.8%)	10	13
2006	1313	1837	3150	1893	1257	5.8	9.1	31(2.9%)	1.3	10

^*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 Western District of Oklahoma has only one courthouse. Robert D. Dennis is the official clerk of court. Clerks' offices are are open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. and the courthouse is open from 7:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, excluding federal holidays. Contact information is listed below:

Federal Building & U.S. Courthouse
200 NW 4th Street
Room 1210
Oklahoma City OK 73102

Main Number: (405) 609-5000
Fax Number: (405) 609-5099
ECF Helpdesk: (405) 609-5555
or (888) 609-OKWD (6593)

History

Court history

The Western District of Oklahoma was established by Congress on June 16, 1906 with one post each for the Western and the Eastern districts. Over time 6 additional judicial posts were added for a total of 7 current posts.^[1]

Judicial posts

The following table highlights the development of judicial posts for the Western District of Oklahoma:

Year	Statute	Total Seats
June 16, 1906	34 Stat. 267, 275	1
June 22, 1936	49 Stat. 1804	2(1 Shared for 3 Districts)
May 24, 1940	54 Stat. 219	3(1 Shared, 1 Temporary)
August 3, 1949	63 Stat. 493	3(1 Shared)
May 19, 1961	75 Stat. 80	4(2 Shared for 3 Districts)
October 20, 1978	92 Stat. 1629	5(2 Shared)
July 10, 1984	98 Stat. 333	6(2 Shared)
December 1, 1990	104 Stat. 5089	7(1 Shared)

^[1]

Notable cases

For a searchable list of opinions, please see Opinions of the Western District of Oklahoma.

• Islamic Shariah law Judge(s):Vicki Miles-LaGrange
*Awad v. Ziriax et al 5:2010cv01186

Following the general election in 2010, Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange issued a temporary restraining order blocking certification of the election results for an Oklahoma ballot measure banning the use of Islamic Shariah law.

State Question 755 passed overwhelmingly with 70.08% of the vote on November 2, 2010. ^[2] The vote supporting it would have prevented state courts from using international law, and Islamic Shariah law, when deciding on a case. ^[3]

Muneer Awad, a Georgian representing the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), filed suit against the law on the basis of its constitutionality. Miles-LaGrange agreed with CAIR and declared the law unconstitutional. On January 10, 2012, the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit ruled that the law favored by voters violated the United States Constitution. ^[4]^[2] ^[5]

Federal courthouse

Major news

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

External links

References

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 Western District of Oklahoma has 7 posts and 0 vacancies. The current Chief Judge is Vicki Miles-LaGrange. This is a list of the current judges on the court:

Judge	Born	Home	Appointed by	Active	Chief	Preceeded	Bachelors	Law
Chief judge James Payne	1941	Lubbock, TX	W. Bush	10/24/2001 - Present	2002 - Present (EOK)	Billy Burrage	U. of Oklahoma, B.S., 1963	U. of Oklahoma Law, J.D., 1966
Judge Robin Cauthron	1950	Edmond, OK	H.W. Bush	3/25/1991 - Present	2001 - 2008	New Seat\|104 Stat. 5089	U. of Oklahoma, B.A., 1970	U. of Oklahoma Law, J.D., 1977
Judge David Russell	1942	Sapulpa, OK	Reagan	12/17/1981 - Present	1994 - 2001(WOK)	Frederick Daugherty	Oklahoma Baptist U.,, B.S., 1963	U. of Oklahoma Law, J.D., 1965
Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange	1953	Oklahoma City, OK	Clinton	11/28/1994 - Present	2008 - Present (WOK)	Lee West	Vassar College, B.A., 1974	Howard U. Law, J.D., 1977
Judge Stephen Friot	1947	Troy, NY	W. Bush	11/12/2001 - Present		Wayne Alley	U. of Oklahoma, B.A., 1969	U. of Oklahoma Law, J.D., 1972
Judge Joe Heaton	1951	Alva, OK	W. Bush	12/10/2001 - Present		Ralph Thompson	Northwestern Oklahoma State U., B.A., 1973	U. of Oklahoma Law, J.D., 1976
Judge Timothy DeGiusti	1962	Oklahoma City, OK	W. Bush	8/9/2007 - Present		Timothy Leonard	U. of Oklahoma, B.A., 1985	U. of Oklahoma Law, J.D., 1988

Pending appointments

There are no current pending appointments for the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma.

Senior judges

See: Federal judges on senior status
The United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma has 3 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 Lee West	Carter	11/2/1979 - 11/26/1994	1993 - 1994	11/26/1994 -Current	University of Oklahoma, B.A., 1952	University of Oklahoma College of Law, J.D., 1956
Senior Judge Timothy Leonard	H.W. Bush	8/12/1992 - 8/21/2006		8/21/2006 - Present	University of Oklahoma, B.A., 1962	University of Oklahoma College of Law, J.D., 1965
Senior Judge Wayne Alley	Reagan	7/11/1985 - 5/16/1999		5/16/1999 - Present	Stanford U., A.B., 1952	Stanford Law, J.D., 1957

Magistrate judges

Judge	Active	Bachelors	Law
Magistrate judge Gary Purcell
Magistrate judge Valerie Couch	03/08/1999 - Present	U. of California, B.A.	U. of Oklahoma Law, J.D., 1983
Magistrate judge Shon Erwin	1995 - Present	Oral Roberts U., B.A., 1983	U. of Oklahoma, J.D. 1986
Judge Suzanne Mitchell	2013-Present

Past judges

Former Chief judges

Judge	Term
Ralph Thompson	1986-1993
Luther Eubanks	1982-1986
Stephen Chandler	1956-1969
Frederick Daugherty	1972-1982
Luther Bohanon	1969-1972
Edgar Vaught	1949-1956
David Russell	1994 - 2001(WOK)
Lee West	1993 - 1994
Robin Cauthron	2001 - 2008

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.