Stephen Murphy
Chief Judge of theUnited States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan
Incumbent
Assumed office July 28, 2025
Preceded by	Sean Cox
Judge of theUnited States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan
Incumbent
Assumed office August 18, 2008
Appointed by	George W. Bush
Preceded by	Patrick J. Duggan
United States Attorney for theEastern District of Michigan
In office 2005–2008
President	George W. Bush
Preceded by	Jeffrey Collins
Succeeded by	Barbara McQuade
Personal details
Born	Stephen Joseph Murphy III (1962-09-23)September 23, 1962 (age 63) St. Louis,Missouri, U.S.
Education	Marquette University (BS) Saint Louis University (JD)

Stephen Joseph Murphy III (born September 23, 1962) is thechief United States district judge of theUnited States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.^[1]

Stephen Murphy was born inSt. Louis,Missouri. After graduating from high school in 1980, Murphy attendedMarquette University. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in economics with a minor in English and graduated in 1984. He then attendedSaint Louis University School of Law, where he edited the law review, served on the Moot Court Board, and won the White Family Fellowship in Public Law.^[2] Murphy graduated from law school in 1987.^[3]

Following law school, Murphy served as a trial attorney for theUnited States Department of Justice from 1987 to 1992, hired under the Attorney General's Honors Program. Murphy worked in the Civil and Tax Divisions inWashington, D.C., where he defended various federal agencies and prosecuted criminal tax cases in federal district courts throughout the United States. Next, Murphy worked as anAssistant United States Attorney inDetroit from 1992 to 2000 where he prosecuted and tried variousviolent crimes,illegal narcotics cases, and several high-profilewhite collar criminal cases in Detroit's federal court. Following his time as Assistant United States Attorney, Murphy was an attorney with theGeneral Motors Legal Staff in Detroit from 2000 to 2005, where he specialized in litigation, internal investigations, counseling on various business law issues, and other "white collar" matters. He served during that period as a publicarbitrator for the National Association of Securities Dealers.^[4][5]

Murphy was an adjunct professor,University of Detroit Mercy School of Law from 1995 to 2003.^[3]

On March 9, 2005, Murphy began serving as theUnited States Attorney in Detroit, Michigan, pending full Senate confirmation. He was unanimously confirmed by the Senate on June 8, 2005. He was preceded by Jeffery Collins. During his term, Murphy worked to create innovative programs regardingnational security andviolent crime issues. He also strove to strengthen the US Attorney's ties with federal and local law enforcement and with the community at large. Overseeing operations inDetroit,Flint, andBay City, Murphy led one of the largest and busiest US Attorney's offices in the country.  During this time, Murphy also chaired the local U.S. Attorney General's Anti-Terrorism Advisory Committee and the Michigan High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area ("HIDTA") group.^{[citation needed]}

On June 28, 2006,President George W. Bush nominated Murphy andRaymond Kethledge to fill two vacancies on theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.^[6] Murphy was to occupy a seat made vacant by the death of JudgeSusan Bieke Neilson. AlthoughRepublicans held a majority of seats in the Senate at the time of Murphy's nomination, Murphy's nomination stalled afterDemocrats won control of the Senate following the2006 midterm election. On April 15, 2008, President Bush renominatedKethledge and previousClinton nomineeHelene White to the Sixth Circuit, and Murphy was nominated to theU.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan to replace JudgePatrick J. Duggan, a vacancy that had remained unfilled since 2000.^[7]

Murphy, along with Kethledge and White, received a joint hearing before theSenate Judiciary Committee on May 7, 2008^[8] and was confirmed on June 24, 2008.^[9] He received his judicial commission on August 18, 2008. He became the chief judge on July 28, 2025 whenSean Cox retired from the bench.^[3][10]

Since early in his tenure as U.S. Attorney, Murphy has occasionally appeared as a speaker at events held by theFederalist Society, an Americanconservative andlibertarian legal organization that advocates for atextualist andoriginalist interpretation of theU.S. Constitution.^[11]

Murphy was appointed byChief Justice John Roberts to serve as a member of the Advisory Committee on Appellate Rules for theJudicial Conference of the United States, and he is currently the chair of the Committee on Intercircuit Assignments.^[12] In addition, Murphy has presided over cases in multiple federal district and circuit courts as a visiting judge.^[12]

• Acts 17 Apologetics v. City of Dearborn, No. 2:11-cv-10700, 2012 WL 12961117 (E.D. Mich. February 7, 2012). While attending an Arab International Festival in an effort to prevent conversions to Islam, a group of evangelical Christians was arrested after a festival worker claimed that one member threatened his safety.^[13] The Acts 17 members were acquitted of the charges by a jury. Subsequently, the Acts 17 members, includingNabeel Qureshi, filed action against the city, ten city employees, and twoArab American Chamber of Commerce officials with a twelve-count complaint alleging violations of defamation, assault, battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The defendants moved for partial judgment, which Murphy denied.

• United States v. Hammond, 742 F.3d 880 (9th Cir. 2014).Steven and Dwight Hammond were convicted by a jury of arson on federal land. They were given sentences lower than the statutory minimum. Sitting by designation on theNinth Circuit Court of Appeals, Murphy authored the opinion of a unanimous panel, finding that the district court erred by sentencing the defendants for terms less than the statutory minimum. Their sentences were vacated and the case was remanded for resentencing. The defendants' subsequent resentencing was the subject of protests planned byAmmon andRyan Bundy, leading to a40-day armed occupation beginning January 2, 2016 at the headquarters of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

• United States v. Liggins, No. 22-1236 (6th Cir. 2023). In a January 23, 2020 hearing in a criminal case involving a Black defendant, Murphy commented in reference to the defendant, "This guy looks like a criminal to me." On August 3, 2023, on an appeal of the defendant's subsequent conviction, theSixth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the conviction, ordered a retrial, and directed that the case be reassigned to a different district judge. The Sixth Circuit reasoned that Murphy's "unacceptable remarks ... raise[d] the spectre of [racial] bias" and that "a reasonable observer could have interpreted the remark to indicate a prejudgment of [the defendant's] guilt based on [his] physical appearance."^[14][15]
• Sturgill v. American Red Cross, No. 2:22-cv-11837 (E.D. Mich. 2025) - AnAmerican Red Cross nurse was terminated from her job after refusing to comply with the Red Cross'COVID-19vaccine mandate. Sturgill subsequently filed suit against the Red Cross, claiming that she had a sincerely held religious belief and should have been granted a religious accommodation. Murphy presided over the jury trial in the case.^[16]

• Stephen Murphy III at theBiographical Directory of Federal Judges, a publication of theFederal Judicial Center.

• 1962 births
• Living people
• Assistant United States attorneys
• Judges of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan
• Marquette University alumni
• Lawyers from St. Louis
• Saint Louis University School of Law alumni
• United States attorneys for the Eastern District of Michigan
• United States Department of Justice lawyers
• United States district court judges appointed by George W. Bush

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