Northern District of Texas
Fifth Circuit
Judgeships
Posts: 12
Judges: 9
Vacancies: 3
Judges
Chief:Reed O'Connor
Active judges:Ada Brown,James Wesley Hendrix,Matthew J. Kacsmaryk,James Kinkeade,Sam Lindsay,Reed O'Connor,Mark Pittman,Karen Gren Scholer,Brantley Starr Senior judges: Jane Boyle,Sam Cummings,A. Joe Fish,Sidney Fitzwater,David Godbey,Barbara Lynn,Robert Maloney,Terry Means

TheUnited States District Court for the Northern District of Texas is one of 94United States district courts. When decisions of the court are appealed, they are appealed to theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit based in downtownNew Orleans at theJohn Minor Wisdom Federal Courthouse.

Vacancies

See also:Current federal judicial vacancies

There are three current vacancies on theUnited States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, out of the court's 12 judicial positions.

Pending nominations

There are no pending nominees for this court.

Active judges

Article III judges

Active Article III judges by appointing political party

The list below displays the number of active judges by the party of the appointing president. It does not reflect how a judge may rule on specific cases or their own political preferences.

• Democratic appointed: 1
• Republican appointed: 8

Senior judges

Senior judges by appointing political party

The list below displays the number of senior judges by the party of the appointing president. It does not reflect how a judge may rule on specific cases or their own political preferences.

• Democratic appointed: 1
• Republican appointed: 7

Magistrate judges

Federal magistrate judges are federal judges who serve inUnited States district courts, but they are not appointed by the president and they do not serve life terms. Magistrate judges are assigned duties by the district judges in the district in which they serve. They may preside over most phases of federal proceedings, except for criminal felony trials. The specific duties of a magistrate judge vary from district to district, but the responsibilities always include handling matters that would otherwise be on the dockets of the district judges. Full-time magistrate judges serve for renewable terms of eight years. Some federal district courts have part-time magistrate judges, who serve for renewable terms of four years.^[1]

Former chief judges

In order to qualify for the office ofchief judge in an Article III circuit or district court, or on theUnited States Court of International Trade, a judge must be in active service and hold seniority over the court's commissioned judges who are 64 years of age or under, have served one year or more, and have not previously served as chief judge.^[2]

In the event that no judge on the court meets those qualifications, the youngest judge in regular active service aged 65 years or more and who has served as a judge for one year or more shall become chief judge. If no judge meets those qualifications, the judge holding seniority in active service who has not served as chief before shall become the chief judge.^[3][4][5]

The chief judge serves for a term of seven years until another judge becomes eligible to serve in the position. No judge is permitted to serve as chief judge after reaching the age of 70 years unless no other judge is qualified to serve.^[3][4][5]

Unlike the chief justice of the United States, a chief judge returns to active service after the expiration of their term and does not create a vacancy on the court by the fact of their promotion.^[2][3][4][5]

On theUnited States Court of Federal Claims, the chief judge is selected by thepresident of the United States. The judge must be less than 70 years of age. A chief may serve until they reach age 70 or until another judge is designated by the president as the new chief judge. If the president selects a new chief judge, the former chief judge may continue active service on the court for the remainder of their appointed term.^[6]

Former judges

For more information on judges of the Northern District of Texas, seeformer federal judges of the Northern District of Texas.

Jurisdiction

The Counties of the Northern District of Texas (click for larger map)

The Northern District of Texas hasoriginal jurisdiction over cases filed within its jurisdiction. These cases can include civil and criminal matters that fall under federal law.

There are seven court divisions, each covering the following counties:

TheAbilene Division, coveringCallahan,Eastland,Fisher,Haskell,Howard,Jones,Mitchell,Nolan,Shackelford,Stephens,Stonewall,Taylor, andThrockmorton counties

TheAmarillo Division, coveringArmstrong,Briscoe,Carson,Castro,Childress,Collingsworth,Dallam,Deaf Smith,Donley,Gray,Hall,Hansford,Hartley,Hemphill,Hutchinson,Lipscomb,Moore,Ochiltree,Oldham,Parmer,Potter,Randall,Roberts,Sherman,Swisher, andWheeler counties

TheDallas Division, coveringDallas,Ellis,Hunt,Johnson,Kaufman,Navarro, andRockwall counties

TheFort Worth Division, coveringComanche,Erath,Hood,Jack,Palo Pinto,Parker,Tarrant, andWise counties

TheLubbock Division, coveringBailey,Borden,Cochran,Crosby,Dawson,Dickens,Floyd,Gaines,Garza,Hale,Hockley,Kent,Lamb,Lubbock,Lynn,Motley,Scurry,Terry, andYoakum counties

TheSan Angelo Division, coveringBrown,Coke,Coleman,Concho,Crockett,Glasscock,Irion,Menard,Mills,Reagan,Runnels,Schleicher,Sterling,Sutton, andTom Green counties

TheWichita Falls Division, coveringArcher,Baylor,Clay,Cottle,Foard,Hardeman,King,Knox,Montague,Wichita,Wilbarger, andYoung counties

The court convenes inDallas with divisions inFort Worth,Amarillo,Abilene,Lubbock,San Angelo, andWichita Falls. It has jurisdiction over 100 counties in the Northern and Central parts of the state ofTexas.

Caseloads

This section contains court management statistics dating back to 2010. It was last updated in September 2025.

History

On December 29, 1845, the State ofTexas was organized as one judicial district. One judgeship was authorized for this U.S. district court, and being that it was not assigned to a judicial circuit, the district court was granted the same jurisdiction as the United States circuit courts, excluding appeals and writs of error, which are the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.

Texas was divided into two judicial districts, known as theEastern District of Texas and theWestern District of Texas, on February 21, 1857. One judgeship was authorized for the court in each district. Circuit court jurisdiction of the district court inTexas was repealed on July 15, 1862, and a U.S. circuit court was established for the district and assigned over to theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.Texas was then assigned to theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on July 23, 1866.

TheNorthern District of Texas was established on February 24, 1879, with one judgeship authorized to the district court. On February 9, 1898, a temporary judgeship was authorized to theNorthern District of Texas. However, the statute provided that any vacancy in the existing judgeship would not be filled.

A few years later, on March 11, 1902, theSouthern District of Texas was established and one judgeship was authorized to this district court.

TheNorthern District of Texas had ten judicial posts added over time for a total of twelve current posts.^[7]

Judicial posts

The following table highlights the development of judicial posts for the Northern District of Texas:^[7]

Federal courthouse

Seven separate courthouses serve the Northern District of Texas.

About United States District Courts

TheUnited States district courts are the generaltrial courts of theUnited States federal courts. There are 94 such courts. Bothcivil andcriminal cases are filed in the district court, which is a court of both law and equity.

There is aUnited States bankruptcy court and a number ofbankruptcy judges associated with each United States district court. Eachfederal judicial district has at least one courthouse, and most districts have more than one.

There is at least one judicial district for each state, and one each for Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. District courts in three insular areas—the United States Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands—exercise the same jurisdiction as U.S. district courts. Despite their name, these courts are technically not District Courts of the United States. Judges on theseterritorial courts do not enjoy the protections ofArticle III of the Constitution, and serve terms of 10 years rather than for life.

There are677 U.S. District Court judgeships.^[8][9]

The number of federal district judge positions is set by the U.S. Congress in Title 28 of the U.S. Code, Section 133, which authorizes a set number of judge positions, or judgeships, making changes and adjustments in these numbers from time to time.

In order to relieve the pressure of trying the hundreds of thousands of cases brought before the federal district courts each year, many trials are tried by juries, along with a presiding judge.^[10]

Appointments by president

The chart below shows the number of district court judges confirmed by the U.S. Senate through February 1 of the second year of presidents' second term in office. At this point in the term, President Obama had the most district court appointments with 32.

Judges by district

See also:Judicial vacancies in federal courts

The table below displays the number of judges in each district and indicates how many were appointed by presidents from each major political party. It also includes the number of vacancies in a district and how many pending nominations for that district are before theUnited States Senate. The table can be sorted by clicking the column headers above the line, and you can navigate through the pages by clicking the arrows at the top of the table. It is updated every Monday.

Judicial selection

The district courts are served byArticle III federal judges who are appointed for life during "good behavior." They are usually first recommended by senators (or members of the House, occasionally). The President of the United States makes the appointments, which must then be confirmed by the U.S. Senate in accordance withArticle III of the United States Constitution.^[9]

Step	A Candidacy Proceeds	A Candidacy Halts
1. Recommendation made by Congress Member to the President	President Nominates toSenate Judiciary Committee	President Declines Nomination
2. Senate Judiciary Committee interviews Candidate	Sends candidate to Senate for confirmation	Returns candidate to President, who may re-nominate to Committee
3. Senate votes on candidate confirmation	Candidate becomes federal judge	Candidate does not receive judgeship

Magistrate judges

The district courts are also served by magistrate judges. Congress created the judicial office offederal magistrate in 1968. In 1990, the position title was changed tomagistrate judge. The chief judge of each district appoints one or more magistrate judges, who discharge many of the ancillary duties of district judges so judges can handle more trials. There are both full-time and part-time magistrate judge positions, and these positions are assigned to the district courts according to caseload criteria (subject to funding by Congress). A full-time magistrate judge serves a term of eight years; a part-time magistrate judge's term of office is four years.^[11]

See also

• United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
• United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana
• United States District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana
• United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana
• United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi
• United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi
• United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas
• United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas
• United States District Court for the Western District of Texas

External links

• United States District Court for the District of Northern Texas
• United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Texas
• Judges of the Northern District of Texas

Footnotes

v • e Federal judges who have served theUnited States District Court for the Northern District of Texas
Active judges	Chief Judge: Reed O'Connor  •  Sam Lindsay  •  James Kinkeade  •  Ada Brown  •  Mark Pittman  •  James Wesley Hendrix  •  Karen Gren Scholer  •  Matthew Kacsmaryk  •  Brantley Starr
Senior judges	Sidney Fitzwater  •  A. Joe Fish  •  Robert Maloney (Texas)  •  Sam Cummings  •  Terry Means  •  Barbara Lynn  •  David Godbey  •  Jane Boyle  •
Magistrate judges	Clinton Averitte  •  Irma Ramirez  •  Jeffrey Cureton  •  Renee Toliver  •  David L. Horan  •  Hal Ray  •  Gordon Bryant  •  John R. Parker  •  Rebecca Rutherford  •  Lee Ann Reno  •  Peter Bray  •
Former Article III judges	Andrew Phelps McCormick  •  Patrick Higginbotham  •  Robert Madden Hill  •  John Rector  •  Edward Roscoe Meek  •  Harold Sanders  •  Jerry Buchmeyer  •  Mary Lou Robinson  •  William Furgeson  •  James Clifton Wilson  •  William Hawley Atwell  •  Thomas Whitfield Davidson  •  John McBryde  •  David Belew  •  Leo Brewster  •  Joseph Dooley  •  Joe Estes  •  Sarah Hughes  •  Elton Kendall  •  Eldon Mahon  •  Robert Porter (Texas)  •  William Taylor (Texas)  •  Halbert Woodward  •
Former Chief judges	Sidney Fitzwater  •  Harold Sanders  •  Jerry Buchmeyer  •  A. Joe Fish  •  Barbara Lynn  •  David Godbey  •  William Hawley Atwell  •  Thomas Whitfield Davidson  •  Leo Brewster  •  Joseph Dooley  •  Joe Estes  •  Robert Porter (Texas)  •  William Taylor (Texas)  •  Halbert Woodward  •

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