The United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama (in case citations, M.D. Ala.) is a United States district court in the Eleventh Circuit (except for patent claims and claims against the U.S. government under the Tucker Act, which are appealed to the Federal Circuit).
The District was established on February 6, 1839.
The United States Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Alabama represents the United States in civil and criminal litigation in the court. the acting United States attorney is Kevin P. Davidson.
Organization of the court
The United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama is one of three federal judicial districts in Alabama. Court for the District is held at Dothan, Montgomery, and Opelika.
Eastern Division comprises the following counties: Chambers, Lee, Macon, Randolph, Russell, and Tallapoosa.
Northern Division comprises the following counties: Autauga, Barbour, Bullock, Butler, Chilton, Coosa, Covington, Crenshaw, Elmore, Lowndes, Montgomery, and Pike.
Southern Division comprises the following counties: Coffee, Dale, Geneva, Henry, and Houston.
Current judges
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Former judges
Chief judges
Succession of seats
Court decisions
Browder v. Gayle (1956) – Court rules that bus segregation in Montgomery was unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment. Decision upheld by U.S. Supreme Court six months later.
Gomillion v. Lightfoot (1958) – Court dismissed action, which was later affirmed by the Fifth Circuit. In 1960, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the decision, finding that electoral districts drawn in Tuskegee, with the purpose of disenfranchising black voters, violated the Fifteenth Amendment.
Lee v. Macon County Board of Education (1963) – Court rules segregation in schooling was unconstitutional under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendment. Decision upheld by U.S. Supreme Court.
United States v. Alabama (1966) – Court rules poll tax violates the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendment. U.S. Supreme Court concurred three weeks later in an unrelated case, Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections.
Glassroth v. Moore (2002) – Court rules that a display of the Ten Commandments, erected by Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore in the Alabama Judicial Building violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
U.S. attorneys
{| class="wikitable"
!Name
!Term started
!Term ended
!Presidents served under
|-
|John A. Minnis
|1870
|1874
|Ulysses S. Grant
|-
|N. S. McAfee
|1874
|1875
|Ulysses S. Grant
|-
|Charles B. Mayer
|1876
|1880
|Ulysses S. Grant<br>Rutherford B. Hayes
|-
|William Hugh Smith
|1880
|1885
|Rutherford B. Hayes<br>James A. Garfield<br>Chester A. Arthur<br>Grover Cleveland
|-
|George H. Craig
|1885
|1885
|Grover Cleveland
|-
|William H. Denson
|1885
|1889
|Grover Cleveland<br>Benjamin Harrison
|-
|Lewis E. Parsons, Jr.
|1889
|1893
|Benjamin Harrison<br>Grover Cleveland
|-
|Henry D. Clayton, Jr.
|1893
|1896
|Grover Cleveland
|-
|George F. Moore, Jr.
|1896
|1897
|Grover Cleveland<br>William McKinley
|-
|Warren S. Reese, Jr.
|1897
|1906
|William McKinley<br>Theodore Roosevelt
|-
|Erastus J. Parsons
|1906
|1913
|Theodore Roosevelt<br>William H. Taft<br>Woodrow Wilson
|-
|Thomas D. Samford
|1913
|1924
|Woodrow Wilson<br>Warren G. Harding<br>Calvin Coolidge
|-
|Grady Reynolds
|1924
|1931
|Calvin Coolidge<br>Herbert Hoover
|-
|Arthur B. Chilton
|1931
|1934
|Herbert Hoover<br>Franklin D. Roosevelt
|-
|Thomas D. Samford
|1934
|1942
|Franklin D. Roosevelt
|-
|Edward B. Parker
|1942
|1953
|Franklin D. Roosevelt<br>Harry S. Truman<br>Dwight D. Eisenhower
|-
|Hartwell Davis
|1953
|1962
|Dwight D. Eisenhower<br>John F. Kennedy
|-
|Ben Hardeman
|1962
|1969
|John F. Kennedy<br>Lyndon B. Johnson<br>Richard Nixon
|-
|Leon J. Hopper
|1969
|1969
|Richard Nixon
|-
|Ira De Ment
|1969
|1977
|Richard Nixon<br>Gerald Ford<br>Jimmy Carter
|-
|Barry E. Teague
|1977
|1981
|Jimmy Carter<br>Ronald Reagan
|-
|John C. Bell
|1981
|1987
|Ronald Reagan
|-
|James E. Wilson
|1987
|1994
|Ronald Reagan<br>George H. W. Bush<br>Bill Clinton
|-
|Charles R. Pitt
|1994
|2001
|2001
|2011
|Barack Obama<br>Donald Trump
|-
|A. Clark Morris
|2017
|2017
|Donald Trump
|-
|Louis V. Franklin Sr.
|2017
|2021
|2023
|Joe Biden
|-
|Jonathan S. Ross (Acting)
|2023
|present
|Joe Biden
|}
See also
- Courts of Alabama
- List of current United States district judges
- List of United States federal courthouses in Alabama
References
External links
- United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama
- United States Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama
- Restoring checks and balances in the confirmation process of United States attorneys: hearing before the Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, One Hundred Tenth Congress, first session, on H.R. 580, March 6, 2007 (includes list of past U.S. attorneys up to about 1996)