U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh 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 Seventh Circuit, which covers Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. Its decisions bind those courts unless reviewed by the Supreme Court of the United States.
| Judge | Appointed by | Since |
|---|---|---|
| Frank Hoover Easterbrook | Reagan (R) | 1985 |
| Kenneth Francis Ripple | Reagan (R) | 1985 |
| Ilana Kara Diamond Rovner | Bush (R) | 1992 |
| Diane S. Sykes | Bush (R) | 2004 |
| David Frank Hamilton | Obama (D) | 2009 |
| Michael Brian Brennan | Trump (R) | 2018 |
| Michael Yale Scudder Jr. | Trump (R) | 2018 |
| Amy Joan St. Eve | Trump (R) | 2018 |
| Thomas Lee Kirsch II | Trump (R) | 2020 |
| Candace Rae Jackson-Akiwumi | Biden (D) | 2021 |
| John Zihun Lee | Biden (D) | 2022 |
| Doris Lenea Pryor | Biden (D) | 2022 |
| Joshua Paul Kolar | Biden (D) | 2024 |
| Nancy Lee Maldonado | Biden (D) | 2024 |
| Rebecca Liane Taibleson | Trump (R) | 2025 |
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.