U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia is a United States district court, a federal trial court where most federal civil and criminal cases are first heard. It lies within the D.C. Circuit, which reviews its decisions on appeal. This page lists every judge to serve on the court, current and former, with who appointed them and whom they succeeded.
| Judge | Appointed by | Since |
|---|---|---|
| Thomas Francis Hogan | Reagan (R) | 1982 |
| Royce C. Lamberth | Reagan (R) | 1987 |
| Paul L. Friedman | Clinton (D) | 1994 |
| Emmet G. Sullivan | Clinton (D) | 1994 |
| Henry Harold Kennedy Jr. | Clinton (D) | 1997 |
| Colleen Kollar-Kotelly | Clinton (D) | 1997 |
| Richard W. Roberts | Clinton (D) | 1998 |
| Ellen Segal Huvelle | Clinton (D) | 1999 |
| John D. Bates | Bush (R) | 2001 |
| Reggie B. Walton | Bush (R) | 2001 |
| Rosemary M. Collyer | Bush (R) | 2002 |
| Richard J. Leon | Bush (R) | 2002 |
| Beryl Alaine Howell | Obama (D) | 2010 |
| James Emanuel Boasberg | Obama (D) | 2011 |
| Amy Berman Jackson | Obama (D) | 2011 |
| Rudolph Contreras | Obama (D) | 2012 |
| Tanya Sue Chutkan | Obama (D) | 2014 |
| Christopher Reid Cooper | Obama (D) | 2014 |
| Amit Priyavadan Mehta | Obama (D) | 2014 |
| Randolph Daniel Moss | Obama (D) | 2014 |
| Dabney Langhorne Friedrich | Trump (R) | 2017 |
| Timothy James Kelly | Trump (R) | 2017 |
| Trevor Neil McFadden | Trump (R) | 2017 |
| Carl John Nichols | Trump (R) | 2019 |
| Jia Michelle Cobb | Biden (D) | 2021 |
| Loren Linn AliKhan | Biden (D) | 2023 |
| Ana Cecilia Reyes | Biden (D) | 2023 |
| Amir Hatem Mahdy Ali | Biden (D) | 2024 |
| Sparkle Leah Sooknanan | Biden (D) | 2025 |
How a judge gets here. Each judge is nominated by a president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate, then holds a numbered seat, for life, until they take senior status, or until they leave the bench. Open any judge to see who appointed them, how the Senate voted, and whom they succeeded, a chain that runs back to 1938.
Source: FJC Biographical Directory. Data last verified 2026-06-28. Verify against the primary source before relying.