Current Judges

Merrick Garland

Chief Judge

Assumed office: March 20, 1997

Appointed by: Bill Clinton

Hometown: Chicago, IL

Attended: Harvard University ('74), Harvard Law ('77)

Clerkship: Justice Brennan (United States Supreme Court); Judge Friendly (Second Circuit)

Before the Bench:

Assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia; principal deputy assistant attorney general; deputy assistant attorney general of the Criminal Division at DOJ.

Trivia: He is partially colorblind and matches his ties to his suits from a list.

See opinions

Neomi Rao

Assumed office: March 19, 2019

Appointed by: Donald Trump

Hometown: Detroit, MI

Attended: Yale University ('95), University of Chicago Law ('99)

Clerkship: Justice Thomas (United States Supreme Court); Judge Wilkinson (Fourth Circuit)

Before the Bench:

Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Office of Management Budget; counsel and special assistant to President George W. Bush.

Trivia: She is the daughter of two doctors and a first generation American.

See opinions

Thomas Griffith

Assumed office: June 29, 2005

Appointed by: George W. Bush

Hometown: Yokohama, Japan

Attended: Brigham Young University ('78), University of Virginia Law ('85)

Before the Bench:

Senate legal counsel.

Trivia: In high school, he was a neighbor of Congressman Morris "Mo" Udall and interned in his office.

See opinions

Karen Henderson

Assumed office: June 16, 1986

Appointed by: George H.W. Bush

Hometown: Oberlin, OH

Attended: Duke University ('66), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ('69)

Before the Bench:

District Judge in U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina; deputy attorney general for South Carolina; partner at Sinkler, Gibbs & Simons.

Trivia: She enjoys decorating the door of her office festively.

See opinions

Gregory Katsas

Assumed office: December 8, 2017

Appointed by: Donald Trump

Hometown: Boston, MA

Attended: Princeton University ('86), Harvard Law ('89)

Clerkship: Justice Thomas (D.C. Circuit and United States Supreme Court); Judge Becker (Third Circuit)

Before the Bench:

Assistant attorney general of the Civil Division at DOJ; assistant White House counsel; partner at Jones Day.

Trivia: As a litigator, he has argued cases in every federal appeals court.

See opinions

Patricia Millett

Assumed office: December 10, 2013

Appointed by: Barack Obama

Hometown: Dexter, ME

Attended: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ('85), Harvard Law ('88)

Clerkship: Judge Tang (Ninth Circuit)

Before the Bench:

Partner at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld; assistant to the solicitor general.

Trivia: She has a second degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do.

See opinions

Cornelia Pillard

Assumed office: December 17, 2013

Appointed by: Barack Obama

Hometown: Cambridge, MA

Attended: Yale University ('83), Harvard Law ('87)

Clerkship: Judge Pollak (Eastern District of Pennsylvania)

Before the Bench:

Assistant to the solicitor general; deputy assistant attorney general of the Office of Legal Counsel at DOJ; professor at Georgetown law; assistant counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

Trivia: She led the Supreme Court Institute at Georgetown Law.

See opinions

Judith Rogers

Assumed office: March 11, 1994

Appointed by: Bill Clinton

Hometown: New York, NY

Attended: Radcliffe College ('61), Harvard Law ('64); University of Virginia Law (LLM) ('88)

Clerkship: Juvenile Court of the District of Columbia

Before the Bench:

Chief judge of the D.C. Court of Appeals; assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia; general counsel for the Congressional Commission on the Organization of the District Government; corporation counsel for the District of Columbia.

Trivia: She helped develop home rule for the District of Columbia.

See opinions

Sri Srinivasan

Assumed office: June 17, 2013

Appointed by: Barack Obama

Hometown: Chandigarh, India

Attended: Stanford University ('89), Stanford Law ('95)

Clerkship: Justice O'Connor (United States Supreme Court); Judge Wilkinson (Fourth Circuit)

Before the Bench:

Principal deputy solicitor general.

Trivia: He played basketball in high school on the same team as future NBA star Danny Manning.

See opinions

David Tatel

Assumed office: October 7, 1994

Appointed by: Bill Clinton

Hometown: Washington, DC

Attended: University of Michigan ('63), University of Chicago Law ('66)

Before the Bench:

Director of the Office of Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Health, Education & Welfare; partner at Hogan & Hartson.

Trivia: He never uses footnotes.

See opinions

Robert Wilkins

Assumed office: January 15, 2014

Appointed by: Barack Obama

Hometown: Muncie, IN

Attended: Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology ('86), Harvard Law ('89)

Clerkship: Judge Gilliam (Southern District of California)

Before the Bench:

Public defender for the District of Columbia; member of the presidential commission on the establishment of the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Trivia: He is an avid genealogist.

See opinions

Harry Edwards

Senior Status

Assumed office: February 20, 1980

Appointed by: Jimmy Carter

Hometown: New York, NY

Attended: Cornell University ('62), University of Michigan Law ('65)

Before the Bench:

Chairman of the board of directors of Amtrak.

Trivia: His stepmother was senior vice president at Motown Record Company.

See opinions

Douglas Ginsburg

Senior Status

Assumed office: October 14, 1986

Appointed by: Ronald Reagan

Hometown: Chicago, IL

Attended: Cornell University ('70), University of Chicago ('73)

Clerkship: Justice Marshall (United States Supreme Court); Judge McGowan (D.C. Circuit)

Before the Bench:

Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the OMB; deputy assistant attorney general and assistant attorney general of the Antitrust Division at DOJ.

Trivia: He dropped out of college to invest in and help run an early computer dating service called Operation Match.

See opinions