A U.S. district court / Established 1863

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (Supreme Court of the District of Columbia)

District of Columbia · A federal trial court, where federal civil and criminal cases are first heard. Appeals go to the D.C. Circuit.

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (Supreme Court of 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.

Judges in history

Currently serving

Seats over time

8 / 28

Appointed D / R

Current judges

No currently serving judges on record.

Former judges

Judge	Appointed by	Years
Fred Dickinson Letts	Hoover (R)	1932–1965
Daniel William O'Donoghue	Hoover (R)	1932–1948
James McPherson Proctor	Hoover (R)	1931–1948
Jesse Corcoran Adkins	Hoover (R)	1930–1955
Joseph Winston Cox	Hoover (R)	1930–1939
Oscar Raymond Luhring	Hoover (R)	1930–1944
Alfred Adams Wheat	Hoover (R)	1929–1943
Peyton Gordon	Coolidge (R)	1928–1946
Adolph A. Hoehling Jr.	Harding (R)	1921–1927
Thomas Jennings Bailey	Wilson (D)	1918–1963
William Hitz	Wilson (D)	1917–1931
Frederick Lincoln Siddons	Wilson (D)	1915–1931
James Harry Covington	Wilson (D)	1914–1918
Walter Irving McCoy	Wilson (D)	1914–1929
Wendell Phillips Stafford	Roosevelt (R)	1904–1931
Jeter Connelly Pritchard	Roosevelt (R)	1903–1904
Daniel Thew Wright	Roosevelt (R)	1903–1914
Thomas H. Anderson	McKinley (R)	1902–1916
Ashley Mulgrave Gould	Roosevelt (R)	1902–1921
Job Barnard	McKinley (R)	1899–1914
Harry M. Clabaugh	McKinley (R)	1899–1914
Charles Cleaves Cole	Harrison (R)	1893–1901
Louis Emory McComas	Harrison (R)	1893–1899
Andrew Coyle Bradley	Harrison (R)	1889–1902
Edward Franklin Bingham	Cleveland (D)	1888–1903
Martin V. Montgomery	Cleveland (D)	1888–1892
William Matthews Merrick	Cleveland (D)	1886–1889
Walter Smith Cox	Hayes (R)	1879–1899
Alexander Burton Hagner	Hayes (R)	1879–1903
Charles Pinckney James	Hayes (R)	1879–1892
David Campbell Humphreys	Grant (R)	1870–1879
Arthur MacArthur	Grant (R)	1870–1887
Andrew Wylie	Lincoln (R)	1864–1885
David Kellogg Cartter	Lincoln (R)	1863–1887
George Purnell Fisher	Lincoln (R)	1863–1870
Abram Baldwin Olin	Lincoln (R)	1863–1879

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 1863.

Source: FJC Biographical Directory. Data last verified 2026-06-28. Verify against the primary source before relying.