Biographies of federal judges

The database export, updated nightly, is obtainable in two formats: (1) organized by judge, with all information relating to a judge grouped together (i.e., flat file); and (2) organized by the tracking categories: Demographics, Federal Judicial Service, Other Federal Judicial Service, Learning, Professional Career, and Other Nominations/Recess Appointments, and then by the unit of analysis (e.g., judicial position, educational institution) for each category (i.e., relational database).

For each format, both a finished Microsoft Excel workbook and comma-delimited CSV files are provided.

Users may download the CSV files and import them into any software program.

Format 1: Organized by Determine (Flat File)
Export organized by decide (Excel workbook)
Export organized by evaluate (CSV file)

Format 2: Organized by Category (Relational Database)
Export organized by category (Excel workbook)
Demographics (CSV file)
Federal Judicial Service (CSV file)
Other Federal Judicial Service (CSV file)
Education (CSV file)
Professional Career (CSV file)
Other Nominations/Recess Appointments (CSV file)

General notes about the export:

• Although the data in the Biographical Database of Article III Federal Judges is historical, it is not necessarily unchanging.

  The Federal Judicial History Office makes every effort to show data that is as exact and complete as possible. Occasionally, however, errors or omissions necessitating edits or additions to the historical data are discovered.

  Courts of Appeals U. Courts of Appeals -First Circuit. District Courts U. District Courts -District of Alabama.

  Researchers with questions regarding discrepancies in the data over time or any other aspect of the export should contact the History Office (history).

• As a general rule, dates of termination due to appointment to another court reflect the date on which the judge took the oath of office for the new court, and thus may post-date the commission for the latter position.

  In December , after it became apparent that some data did not conform to this default rule, 98 dates of termination due to appointment to another court were changed. While the vast majority of these dates now conform to the default rule, the best available evidence indicated a different date should be used in a handful of cases.

  This determination sometimes required choices between conflicting sources.

• Excel does not recognize pre dates as dates. Therefore, the finished Excel workbooks present date columns as communicate in yyyy-mm-dd format to construct them fully sortable.

  In contrast, the CSV files present these columns in mm/dd/yyyy format so that other software programs will recognize them as dates.

• Published references to information from this database should use the citation: History of the Federal Judiciary.
  The Biographical Directory of Federal Judges is a publication of the Federal Judicial Center providing basic biographical information on all past and present United States federal court Article III judges those federal judges with life tenure. These include justices of the Supreme Court of the United States and judges of United States courts of appealsdistrict courtsand the now-obsolete circuit courts. The Biographical Directory is available online in searchable format. Biographical information provided for each judge includes birth and death dates, educational background, a summary of the judge's professional career and a summary of the judge's federal judicial service including dates of nomination, confirmation, and acceptance of commission.

  Web site of the Federal Judicial Center, Washington, DC. 

Notes on terminology (column headers and other terms requiring further explanation):

• “nid” refers to “Node ID.” This is a unique identifier for each judge generated solely for purposes of the FJC’s biographical database.

  The Node ID also corresponds to each judge’s biography on the website and may be used to create a link to a biography (for example, the biography of a judge with Node ID will appear at: ).

• “jid” refers to “Judge Identification Number.” This was used as a unique identifier for each judge, generated for purposes of the database, until July These numbers are no longer used and will not be generated for judges added to the database after July , but will remain in the export as a courtesy to researchers who may have relied on them.
• “Appointment Title” refers to titles received at the day of appointment, such as Principal Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, rather than temporary titles held as a result of seniority, such as the chief judge of a U.S.

  district court.

• “Reappointing President” and “Party of Reappointing President” are used in the exceptional instances in which a determine was appointed to the similar seat by two different presidents, having received a recess appointment from the first and a nomination, followed by Senate proof, from the second.
• “Seat ID” (which replaces the field labeled “Vice (predecessor)”) is a code, assigned by the FJC to each judicial service record in the database, that indicates the instruction of succession on each court.

  The code consists of three components: (1) court; (2) seat number; and (3) order of succession. For example, the first judge to occupy the third authorized judgeship on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York would be assigned a Seat ID of NYSD; that judge’s successor would have the code NYSD, and so forth.

  Almanac of the Federal Judiciary KF A biographical directory of all active federal district and appellate court judges. In addition to typical biographical information, entries include noteworthy rulings, media coverage, publications, lawyers' comments on the judge's habit and demeanor, judge's special guidelines, and case management statistics. American Bench: Judges of the Nation Ref.

  The Seat ID codes replicate the information found on the succession charts located in the Courts section of the website.

• Judiciary Committee Action: Prior to April , and on a few occasions thereafter, nominations were listed in the Senate Executive Journal as having been reported by the committee, with no further detail given.

  Those nominations are listed in the export as "Reported (no recommendation recorded)." On the rare occasions when the committee stated explicitly that it was reporting a nomination without a recommendation regarding whether it should be confirmed, the term "Reported (without recommendation)" is used.

• “Service as Chief Judge, Begin” and “Service as Chief Determine, End” are used to point out years of temporary service as a chief judge, such as that on a U.S.

  district court, rather than service in a presidentially appointed chief position, as described above. Columns labeled “2^nd Service as Chief Judge” are used to accommodate the unique instances in which a determine has served multiple terms as chief on the same court.

• “Other Federal Judicial Service” includes a wide variety of offices, such as judge of a territorial court; judge of a exceptional court such as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court; U.S.

  bankruptcy judge; U.S. magistrate judge; decide of a military court; and many others. These positions vary widely with respect to the method of appointment, the scope of jurisdiction and judicial duties, and the length of the term of office.

  The only factor common to all is the positon’s creation or authorization by the U.S. Congress.

• “Other Nominations/Recess Appointments” indicates instances in which a person who was or later became an Article III judge received an attempted presidential recess appointment or presidential nomination to an Article III judgeship that did not result in a successful appointment, for any of a variety of reasons.

Notes for users of the export prior to May 8,

• The column formerly labeled “Retirement from Active Service” has been retitled “Senior Status Date” to beat reflect the terminology used most commonly within the judiciary and to avoid confusion with entire retirement from judicial service.
• The column formerly labeled "Vice (predecessor)" has been replaced with "Seat ID," as explained in the terminology notes above.
• The column which previously indicated “yes” or “no” with regard to a Senate voice vote has been changed to reflect either “Voice Vote” or “Roll Dial Vote.”
• Nominations reported favorably by the Senate Judiciary Committee, listed formerly as “Reported with Recommendation,” are now listed with the more accurate term “Reported (favorably).” Prior to April , and on a few occasions thereafter, nominations were listed in the Senate Executive Journal as having been reported by the committee, with no further detail given.

  Those nominations are listed in the export as "Reported (no recommendation recorded)." On the rare occasions when the committee stated explicitly that it was reporting a nomination without a recommendation regarding whether it should be confirmed, the term "Reported (without recommendation)" is used.

  Toggle share options: Learn about the compilation of the Biographical Directory of Article III Federal Judges. Biographies of judges include birth/death, Article III judicial service, other federal judicial service, education, professional career, study resources, and other information.

  Where records of committee reports are incomplete, the term “Reported (unknown)” is used. Nominations with no Judiciary Committee action are now listed as “No Committee before December 10, ,” or “Not Referred to Committee,” where applicable.

• Service records for the Commerce Court, which operated from to , have been removed from the portion of the database containing Article III service records and moved to the Other Federal Judicial Service category, described above, because appointments to this court were made for limited terms and not “during good behavior” as Article III requires.

  All five judges who served on the Commerce Court (Robert Archbald, John Carland, William Hunt, Martin Knapp, and Julian Mack) last in the database, having received simultaneous Article III appointments as circuit judges (and three of them having had prior Article III service).