WriteTheUS

District Court · Sixth Circuit

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee

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.

Judges currently in service
JudgeSinceNominated bySeat
Robert Allan Edgar Senior1985Ronald ReaganTNED0303
Curtis Lynn Collier Senior1995William J. ClintonTNED0501
Thomas W. Phillips Senior2002George W. BushTNED0402
Thomas A. Varlan2003George W. BushTNED0112
J. Ronnie Greer Senior2003George W. BushTNED0204
Travis Randall McDonough2015Barack ObamaTNED0502
Clifton Leland Corker2019Donald J. TrumpTNED0205
Katherine Amber Crytzer2020Donald J. TrumpTNED0404
Charles Edward Atchley Jr.2020Donald J. TrumpTNED0305

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
9
Seat numbers on record
28
Seats with a sitting judge
SeatHeld bySinceHolders to date
TNED0112Thomas A. Varlan20031
TNED0204J. Ronnie Greer20031
TNED0205Clifton Leland Corker20191
TNED0303Robert Allan Edgar19851
TNED0305Charles Edward Atchley Jr.20201
TNED0402Thomas W. Phillips20021
TNED0404Katherine Amber Crytzer20201
TNED0501Curtis Lynn Collier19951
TNED0502Travis Randall McDonough20151
19 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
TNED0101John McNairy18331
TNED0102Morgan Welles Brown18531
TNED0103West Hughes Humphreys18621
TNED0104Connally Findlay Trigg18801
TNED0105David McKendree Key18951
TNED0106Charles Dickens Clark19081
TNED0107Edward Terry Sanford19231
TNED0108Xenophon Hicks19281
TNED0109George Caldwell Taylor19521
TNED0110Robert Love Taylor19871
TNED0111Robert Leon Jordan20241
TNED0201Leslie Rogers Darr19671
TNED0202Frank Wiley Wilson19821
TNED0203Thomas Gray Hull20081
TNED0301Charles Gelbert Neese19891
TNED0302Herbert Theodore Milburn19841
TNED0304Harry Sandlin Mattice Jr.20211
TNED0401James Howard Jarvis II20071
TNED0403Pamela Lynn Reeves20201

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.

Republican
7
Democratic
2
Sitting judges by appointing president
PresidentJudges
Donald J. Trump3
George W. Bush3
William J. Clinton1
Ronald Reagan1
Barack Obama1

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)