District Court · Fifth Circuit
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana
The federal trial court. Juries sit here, evidence is heard here, and almost every federal case begins here.
The bench
Who sits on this court?
Judges in active service, when they were confirmed, and who nominated each.
| Judge | Since | Nominated by | Seat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sarah S. Vance Senior | 1994 | William J. Clinton | LAED0803 |
| Eldon E. Fallon Senior | 1995 | William J. Clinton | LAED1203 |
| Mary Ann Vial Lemmon Senior | 1996 | William J. Clinton | LAED1602 |
| Ivan L. R. Lemelle Senior | 1998 | William J. Clinton | LAED1502 |
| Carl J. Barbier Senior | 1998 | William J. Clinton | LAED0312 |
| Jay C. Zainey | 2002 | George W. Bush | LAED0604 |
| Lance M. Africk Senior | 2002 | George W. Bush | LAED0405 |
| Nannette Jolivette Brown | 2011 | Barack Obama | LAED1303 |
| Jane Margaret Triche Milazzo | 2011 | Barack Obama | LAED1603 |
| Susie Morgan | 2012 | Barack Obama | LAED0904 |
| Barry Weldon Ashe | 2018 | Donald J. Trump | LAED1503 |
| Wendy Baldwin Vitter | 2019 | Donald J. Trump | LAED1403 |
| Greg Gerard Guidry | 2019 | Donald J. Trump | LAED1004 |
| Darrel James Papillion | 2023 | Joseph R. Biden | LAED0313 |
| Brandon Scott Long | 2023 | Joseph R. Biden | LAED1103 |
| William Jerrol Crain | 2025 | Donald J. Trump | LAED1204 |
| Anna Elizabeth Wagner St. John | 2026 | Donald J. Trump | LAED0804 |
Source · Federal Judicial Center, Biographical Directory of Article III Federal Judges, 1789–present (public domain)
What seats does this court have?
Each seat on this court, who holds it, and how many judges have held it before.
- Judges seated now
- 17
- Seat numbers on record
- 63
| Seat | Held by | Since | Holders to date |
|---|---|---|---|
| LAED0312 | Carl J. Barbier | 1998 | 1 |
| LAED0313 | Darrel James Papillion | 2023 | 1 |
| LAED0405 | Lance M. Africk | 2002 | 1 |
| LAED0604 | Jay C. Zainey | 2002 | 1 |
| LAED0803 | Sarah S. Vance | 1994 | 1 |
| LAED0804 | Anna Elizabeth Wagner St. John | 2026 | 1 |
| LAED0904 | Susie Morgan | 2012 | 1 |
| LAED1004 | Greg Gerard Guidry | 2019 | 1 |
| LAED1103 | Brandon Scott Long | 2023 | 1 |
| LAED1203 | Eldon E. Fallon | 1995 | 1 |
| LAED1204 | William Jerrol Crain | 2025 | 1 |
| LAED1303 | Nannette Jolivette Brown | 2011 | 1 |
| LAED1403 | Wendy Baldwin Vitter | 2019 | 1 |
| LAED1502 | Ivan L. R. Lemelle | 1998 | 1 |
| LAED1503 | Barry Weldon Ashe | 2018 | 1 |
| LAED1602 | Mary Ann Vial Lemmon | 1996 | 1 |
| LAED1603 | Jane Margaret Triche Milazzo | 2011 | 1 |
46 seat numbers with no sitting judge
These are seat numbers in the historical record with nobody currently in them. That usually means the seat was abolished or renumbered, not that it is open today — Congress has changed the size of federal courts many times. Do not read this as a vacancy list.
| Seat | Last held by | Until | Holders |
|---|---|---|---|
| LAED0101 | John Dick | 1824 | 1 |
| LAED0102 | Thomas Bolling Robertson | 1828 | 1 |
| LAED0103 | Samuel Henderson Harper | 1837 | 1 |
| LAED0104 | Philip Kissick Lawrence | 1841 | 1 |
| LAED0105 | Theodore Howard McCaleb | 1845 | 1 |
| LAED0201 | Theodore Howard McCaleb | 1861 | 1 |
| LAED0202 | Edward Henry Durell | 1866 | 1 |
| LAED0301 | Edward Coke Billings | 1893 | 1 |
| LAED0302 | Charles Parlange | 1907 | 1 |
| LAED0303 | Eugene Davis Saunders | 1909 | 1 |
| LAED0304 | Rufus Edward Foster | 1925 | 1 |
| LAED0305 | Charlton Reid Beattie | 1925 | 1 |
| LAED0306 | Louis Henry Burns | 1928 | 1 |
| LAED0307 | Wayne G. Borah | 1949 | 1 |
| LAED0308 | James Skelly Wright | 1962 | 1 |
| LAED0309 | Frank Burton Ellis | 1969 | 1 |
| LAED0310 | Frederick Jacob Reagan Heebe | 2014 | 1 |
| LAED0311 | Okla Jones II | 1996 | 1 |
| LAED0401 | Adrian Joseph Caillouet | 1946 | 1 |
| LAED0402 | Herbert William Christenberry | 1975 | 1 |
| LAED0403 | Charles Schwartz Jr. | 2012 | 1 |
| LAED0404 | Edith Brown Clement | 2001 | 1 |
| LAED0501 | Elmer Gordon West | 1972 | 1 |
| LAED0601 | Robert Andrew Ainsworth Jr. | 1966 | 1 |
| LAED0602 | Edward James Boyle Sr. | 2002 | 1 |
| LAED0603 | A. J. McNamara | 2014 | 1 |
| LAED0701 | Fred James Cassibry | 1987 | 1 |
| LAED0702 | Marcel Livaudais Jr. | 2008 | 1 |
| LAED0801 | Lansing Leroy Mitchell | 2001 | 1 |
| LAED0802 | Henry Alvan Mentz Jr. | 2001 | 1 |
| LAED0901 | Alvin Benjamin Rubin | 1977 | 1 |
| LAED0902 | Robert Frederick Collins | 1993 | 1 |
| LAED0903 | G. Thomas Porteous Jr. | 2010 | 1 |
| LAED1001 | James August Comiskey | 1975 | 1 |
| LAED1002 | Morey Leonard Sear | 2004 | 1 |
| LAED1003 | Kurt Damian Engelhardt | 2018 | 1 |
| LAED1101 | Jack Murphy Gordon | 1982 | 1 |
| LAED1102 | Martin Leach-Cross Feldman | 2022 | 1 |
| LAED1201 | Roger Blake West | 1978 | 1 |
| LAED1202 | Adrian Guy Duplantier | 2007 | 1 |
| LAED1301 | George Arceneaux Jr. | 1993 | 1 |
| LAED1302 | Stanwood R. Duval Jr. | 2017 | 1 |
| LAED1401 | Patrick Eugene Carr | 1998 | 1 |
| LAED1402 | Helen Ginger Berrigan | 2024 | 1 |
| LAED1501 | Veronica DiCarlo Wicker | 1994 | 1 |
| LAED1601 | Peter Hill Beer | 2018 | 1 |
This site does not publish a vacancy count. Seat identifiers are not stable across court renamings and reorganisations, so a seat that was vacated and refilled can appear empty when it is not. The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts publishes the authoritative list of current judicial vacancies: uscourts.gov.
Seats are created by Congress and filled by the President with the Senate's consent. For current vacancies, use the Administrative Office's published list rather than inferring them from this table.
Source · Federal Judicial Center, Biographical Directory of Article III Federal Judges, 1789–present (public domain)
How this bench was built
Who appointed them?
The tally of presidents who placed the sitting judges on this court.
- Democratic
- 10
- Republican
- 7
| President | Judges |
|---|---|
| Donald J. Trump | 5 |
| William J. Clinton | 5 |
| Barack Obama | 3 |
| George W. Bush | 2 |
| Joseph R. Biden | 2 |
The party of the president who appointed a judge is a matter of record. How that judge will rule is not, and this site draws no inference from one to the other.
Source · Federal Judicial Center, Biographical Directory of Article III Federal Judges, 1789–present (public domain)