United States District Court for the District of Nevada

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District of Nevada Ninth Circuit Chief: Robert C. Jones Judges: 5 Posts: 7 Vacancies: 2 Active judges Du • Hicks • Mahan • Navarro Senior Judges Dawson • George • Hunt • McKibben • Pro • Reed Magistrate Judges Cooke • Foley • Johnston • Leavitt • Leen • McQuaid 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 District of Nevada is the United States district court whose jurisdiction is the state of Nevada. The court has locations in Las Vegas and Reno.

The United States Attorney's Office for the District of Nevada represents the United States in civil and criminal litigation in the court. The current United States Attorney is Steven Myhre. When decisions of the court are appealed, they are appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals based in Downtown San Fransisco at the James R. Browing Federal Courthouse, but hears initial appeals at the Richard Chambers Federal Courthouse in Pasadena, CA.

Vacancy warning level

The United States District Court for the District of Nevada's vacancy warning level is currently set at orange. The court currently has two vacancies out of their seven posts, constituting 29% of their seats. There is one pending appointments for the district.

Jurisdiction

The Counties of Nevada (click for larger map)

The jurisdiction of the District of Nevada consists of all the counties in the state of Nevada. The Lloyd D. George Federal District Courthouse is the home for the district court in Las Vegas. The building of the courthouse was completed in 2002 and was the first federal building built to comply with the post-Oklahoma City blast resistance requirements. When decisions of the court are appealed, they are appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals based in Downtown San Francisco at the James R. Browning Federal Courthouse.

Cases heard

The District of Nevada 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	1975	2200	4175	2308	1867	10.1	8.7	104(7.1%)	0	29
2009	2018	2172	4190	2201	1989	11.2	9.2	61(4%)	0	32
2008	1983	2187	4170	2143	2027	2018	8.8	9.1	6.8	29
2007	1896	2293	4189	2197	1992	8.0	8.6	134(9.3%)	0	28
2006	2041	2300	4341	2464	1877	8.3	9.5	125(9%)	0	33

*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 District of Nevada has two separate courthouses. The Clerk's office is open Monday through Friday 9 a.m. - 4:00 p.m., excluding Federal holidays. Please consult the chart below for more information:

Branch	Address	Phone number
Las Vegas Division Lloyd D. George U.S. Courthouse	333 S. Las Vegas Blvd. Las Vegas, NV 89101	(702) 464-5400
Reno Division Bruce R. Thompson Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse	400 S. Virginia St. Reno, NV 89501	(775) 686-5800

History

Court history

The District of Nevada was established by Congress on February 27, 1865 with one post to cover the entire state and was assigned over to the Tenth Circuit. On July 23, 1866, Congress reorganized the circuits and assigned the District of Nevada over to the Ninth Circuit. Over time 6 additional judicial posts were added for a total of 7 current posts.

Judicial posts

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

Year	Statute	Total Seats
February 27, 1865	13 Stat. 440	1
July 23, 1866	14 Stat. 209	1
February 10, 1954	68 Stat. 8	2 (1 temporary)
May 19, 1961	75 Stat. 80	2
October 20, 1978	92 Stat. 1629	3
July 10, 1984	98 Stat. 33	4
November 29, 1999	113 Stat. 1501	6
December 21, 2000	114 Stat. 2762	7

Notable cases

For a searchable list of opinions, please see Justia.com-Nevada District Court Cases.

Federal courthouse

Two separate courthouses serve the District of Nevada.

Major news

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

Las Vegas courthouse shooting

On January 4, 2010, a shooting happened at the Lloyd George federal courthouse in Las Vegas in where the gunman and the security officer were killed. The shooting happened at 8:00 AM-Pacific Standard Time in the courthouse's main lobby. The gunman who was killed in the case was Johnnie Lee Wicks. Wicks filed a racial discrimination case in 2008 against the Social Security Administration.

See also

• United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

External links

• United States District Court - District of Nevada
• US Attorney's Office for the District of Nevada
• Judges of the District of Nevada
• Opinions of the District of Nevada

References

District of Nevada Ninth Circuit Chief: Robert C. Jones Judges: 5 Posts: 7 Vacancies: 2 Active judges Du • Hicks • Mahan • Navarro Senior Judges Dawson • George • Hunt • McKibben • Pro • Reed Magistrate Judges Cooke • Foley • Johnston • Leavitt • Leen • McQuaid 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 District of Nevada has 7 posts and 2 vacancies. The current Chief Judge is Robert C. Jones. This is a list of the current judges on the court:

Judge	Born	Home	Appointed by	Active	Chief	Preceeded	Bachelors	Law
Judge James Mahan	1943	El Paso, TX	W. Bush	1/30/2002 - Present		New Seat|114 Stat. 2762	U. of Charleston, B.A., 1965	Vanderbilt U. Law School, J.D., 1973
Chief Judge Robert C. Jones	1947	Las Vegas, NV	W. Bush	11/30/2003 - Present	2011 - Present	David Hagen	Brigham Young U., B.S., 1971	U. of California, Los Angeles, School of Law, J.D., 1975
Judge Gloria M. Navarro	1967	Las Vegas, NV	Obama	5/6/2010 - Present		Brian Sandoval	U. of Nevada Las Vegas, B.A., 1989	Arizona State U. College of Law, J.D., 1992
Judge Miranda Du			Obama	3/28/2012 - Present		Roger Hunt	U. of California, Davis, B.A., 1991	U. of California, Berkeley Law, J.D., 1994
Judge Andrew Gordon	1962	San Francisco, CA	Obama	3/11/2013 - Present		Kent Dawson	Claremont McKenna College, B.A., 1984	Harvard Law, J.D., 1987

Pending appointments

The United States District Court for the District of Nevada has 1 appointee pending and 2 vacancies. This is a list of the current pending appointees to the court:

Judge	Confirmation	Bachelors	Law
Jennifer Dorsey		U. of Nevadas, Las Vegas, B.A., 1994	Pepperdine U. Law, J.D., 1997

Senior judges

See: Federal judges on senior status
The United States District Court for the District of Nevada has 6 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 Roger Hunt	Clinton	5/25/2000 - 5/26/2011	2007 - 2011	5/26/2011 - Present	Brigham Young U., B.A., 1966	George Washington U., J.D., 1970
Senior Judge Phil Pro	Reagan	7/23/1987 - 12/31/2011	2002 - 2007	12/31/2011 - Present	San Francisco State U., B.A., 1968	Golden Gate U. School of Law, J.D., 1972
Senior Judge Kent Dawson	Clinton	5/31/2000 - 7/9/2012		7/9/2012 - Present	Weber State College, B.S., 1969	U. of Utah School of Law, J.D., 1971
Senior Judge Lloyd George	Reagan	5/3/1984 - 12/1/1997	1992 - 1997	12/1/1997 - Present	Brigham Young U., B.S., 1955	U. of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law, J.D., 1961
Senior Judge Larry Hicks	W. Bush	11/7/2001 - 12/13/2012		12/13/2012 - Present	U. of Nevada, B.S., 1965	U. of Colorado, J.D., 1968
Senior Judge Howard McKibben	Reagan	10/4/1984 - 4/1/2005	1997 - 2002	4/1/2005 - Present	Bradley U., B.S., 1962	U. of Michigan Law School, J.D., 1967

Magistrate judges

Judge	Active	Bachelors	Law
Magistrate Judge Valerie Cooke	1999-Current	U. of Nevada, Reno, B.A	Northwestern School of Law of Lewis and Clark College, J.D.
Federal Magistrate Judge Robert McQuaid, Jr.	1996-9/2/2011	U. of Nevada, Reno, B.A., 1968	Willamette University College of Law, J.D., 1971
Magistrate Judge George Foley	August 2005-Current	U. of Nevada, B.A., 1977	U. of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law, J.D., 1980
Magistrate Judge Peggy Leen	1/16/2001-Current	U. of Nevada, Las Vegas, 1976	U. of San Diego Law School, J.D., 1979
Magistrate Judge Vincent Ferenbach	8/7/2011-Current	Princeton, 1969	Arizona State U., J.D., 1979
Magistrate Judge Carl Hoffman
Magistrate Judge William Cobb	09/04/2011 - Present	U. of Nevada	Lews & Clark Law
Judge Nancy J. Koppe	2013-Present		Cornell Law School

Past judges

Former Chief judges

Judge	Term
John Rolly Ross	1961 - 1963
Roger T. Foley	1954 - 1957
Roger Foley	1963 - 1980
Harry Claiborne	1980 - 1986
Howard McKibben	1997 - 2002
Edward Reed	1986 - 1992
Lloyd George	1992 - 1997
Phil Pro	2002 - 2007
Roger Hunt	2007 - 2011

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. Alexander White Baldwin
2. Edgar Winters Hillyer
3. George Myron Sabin
4. Thomas Porter Hawley
5. Edward Silsby Farrington
6. Brian Sandoval
7. Edward Reed
8. Frank Herbert Norcross
9. Johnnie Rawlinson
10. Harry Claiborne
11. Roger Foley
12. Roger T. Foley
13. David Hagen
14. Bruce Thompson
15. John Rolly Ross