Myron H. Thompson | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Thompson in 2017 | |
| Senior Judge of theUnited States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama | |
| Assumed office August 22, 2013 | |
| Chief Judge of theUnited States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama | |
| In office 1991–1998 | |
| Preceded by | Truman McGill Hobbs |
| Succeeded by | Harold Albritton |
| Judge of theUnited States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama | |
| In office September 29, 1980 – August 22, 2013 | |
| Appointed by | Jimmy Carter |
| Preceded by | Frank Minis Johnson |
| Succeeded by | Emily C. Marks |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Myron Herbert Thompson (1947-01-07)January 7, 1947 (age 78) |
| Education | Yale University (BA,JD) |
Myron Herbert Thompson (born January 7, 1947) is asenior United States district judge of theUnited States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama.
Born inTuskegee,Alabama, Thompson received aBachelor of Arts degree fromYale University in 1969 and aJuris Doctor fromYale Law School in 1972. He was an AssistantAttorney General of Alabama from 1972 to 1974, and then in private practice inDothan, Alabama until 1980.
On September 17, 1980, Thompson was nominated by PresidentJimmy Carter to a seat on theUnited States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama vacated by JudgeFrank Minis Johnson. Thompson was confirmed by theUnited States Senate on September 26, 1980, and received his commission on September 29, 1980. He served as Chief Judge from 1991 to 1998. He tooksenior status on August 22, 2013.[1] As of 2025, he is the last Democratic appointee to serve on the District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, and also the last judge appointed by a Democratic president to that court.
In 2013, in a redistricting case heard by a three-judge panel, Thompson disagreed with its decision contending it was an illegal use of racial quotas. He wrote that Alabama's use of theVoting Rights Act was a "cruel irony," that as the state was simultaneously arguing before the Supreme Court inShelby County v. Holder, that Section 5 should be found unconstitutional, it was "relying on racial quotas…and seeking to justify those quotas with the very provision it was helping to render inert."[2] On October 29, 2019, Judge Thompson issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Human Life Protection Act from taking effect in Alabama as prescribed on November 15, 2019. The Alabama law "imposes criminal liability on abortion providers for nearly all abortions, completed or attempted, regardless of fetal viability." In essence," the Court said, "the Act imposes a near-total ban on abortion." Judge Thompson concluded, "The court is persuaded that the plaintiffs are likely to succeed in showing that the Act violates an individual’s constitutional right to obtain a pre-viability abortion, and thus that it violates her constitutional rights."[3] In 2014, inPlanned Parenthood Southeast, Inc., v.Strange, (also known asPlanned Parenthood Southeast, Inc., v.Bentley), Thompson ruled an Alabama law regulating abortion unconstitutional, citing theundue burden standard.[4][5]
| Legal offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Judge of theUnited States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama 1980–2013 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chief Judge of theUnited States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama 1991–1998 | Succeeded by |