U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit is one of the thirteen U.S. courts of appeals, the intermediate appellate tier of the federal judiciary. It hears appeals from the federal district courts within the Fourth Circuit, which covers Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia. Its decisions bind those courts unless reviewed by the Supreme Court of the United States.
| Judge | Appointed by | Since |
|---|---|---|
| James Harvie Wilkinson III | Reagan (R) | 1984 |
| Paul Victor Niemeyer | Bush (R) | 1990 |
| Diana Jane Gribbon Motz | Clinton (D) | 1994 |
| Robert Bruce King | Clinton (D) | 1998 |
| William Byrd Traxler Jr. | Clinton (D) | 1998 |
| Roger L. Gregory | Clinton (D) | 2001 |
| G. Steven Agee | Bush (R) | 2008 |
| Albert Diaz | Obama (D) | 2010 |
| Barbara Milano Keenan | Obama (D) | 2010 |
| James Andrew Wynn Jr. | Obama (D) | 2010 |
| Henry Franklin Floyd | Obama (D) | 2011 |
| Stephanie Dawn Thacker | Obama (D) | 2012 |
| Pamela Ann Harris | Obama (D) | 2014 |
| A. Marvin Quattlebaum Jr. | Trump (R) | 2018 |
| Julius Ness Richardson | Trump (R) | 2018 |
| Allison Jones Rushing | Trump (R) | 2019 |
| Toby Jay Heytens | Biden (D) | 2021 |
| DeAndrea Gist Benjamin | Biden (D) | 2023 |
| Nicole Gina Berner | Biden (D) | 2024 |
The federal trial courts whose appeals this circuit reviews.
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 1891.
Source: FJC Biographical Directory. Data last verified 2026-06-28. Verify against the primary source before relying.