WriteTheUS

District Court · Fourth Circuit

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of South Carolina

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.

No sitting judges are recorded for this court.

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
0
Seat numbers on record
11
Seats with a sitting judge
SeatHeld bySinceHolders to date
11 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.

SeatLast held byUntilHolders
SCED0101Henry Augustus Middleton Smith19241
SCED0102Ernest Ford Cochran19341
SCED0103Francis Kerschner Myers19401
SCED0104Julius Waties Waring19681
SCED0105Ashton Hilliard Williams19621
SCED0106Charles Earl Simons Jr.19651
SCED0201John Lyles Glenn Jr.19381
SCED0202Alva Moore Lumpkin19411
SCED0203George Bell Timmerman Sr.19661
SCED0204Robert Witherspoon Hemphill19651
SCED0301James Robert Martin Jr.19651

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.

Sitting judges by appointing president
PresidentJudges

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)