A U.S. district court / Established 1855

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio

Ohio · A federal trial court, where federal civil and criminal cases are first heard. Appeals go to the Sixth Circuit.

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio is a United States district court, a federal trial court where most federal civil and criminal cases are first heard. It lies within the Sixth 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

15 D / 25 R / 1 other

Appointing party · all history

Party letters here are the appointing president’s, never a judge’s own: D Democratic, R Republican, N pre-modern-party era (Federalist, Whig, and other early parties); “–” means no recorded party. Counts cover the court’s entire history.

Judges in active service

Senior judges

Still members of the court: senior judges have stepped back from a full docket but continue to hear cases.

Seats over time

Each band is one judgeship, from the court’s founding to today. A segment’s width is the holder’s tenure; its color is the appointing president’s party. Gaps are vacancies.

Sarah Daggett Morrison (current) · James L. Graham (current) · Michael H. Watson (current) · Walter Herbert Rice (current) · Michael Ryan Barrett (current) · Michael Jay Newman (current) · Susan J. Dlott (current) · Douglas Russell Cole (current) · Edmund A. Sargus Jr. (current) · Algenon L. Marbley (current) · Herman Jacob Weber (current) · Thomas M. Rose (current) · Matthew Walden McFarland (current) · Sandra Shank Beckwith (current) · Timothy Seymour Black (current) · Jeffery Paul Hopkins (current) · Mell Gilbert Underwood

Former judges

Judge	Appointed by	Years
Gregory L. Frost	G.W. Bush (R)	2003–2016
George Curtis Smith	Reagan (R)	1987–2020
John David Holschuh	Carter (D)	1980–2011
S. Arthur Spiegel	Carter (D)	1980–2014
Robert Morton Duncan	Nixon (R)	1974–1985
Carl Bernard Rubin	Nixon (R)	1971–1995
Timothy Sylvester Hogan	L.B. Johnson (D)	1966–1989
Joseph Peter Kinneary	L.B. Johnson (D)	1966–2003
David Stewart Porter	L.B. Johnson (D)	1966–1989
John Weld Peck II	Kennedy (D)	1962–1966
Carl Andrew Weinman	Eisenhower (R)	1959–1979
Lester LeFevre Cecil	Eisenhower (R)	1953–1959
John H. Druffel	F.D. Roosevelt (D)	1937–1967
Mell Gilbert Underwood	F.D. Roosevelt (D)	1936–1972
Robert Reasoner Nevin	Coolidge (R)	1929–1952
Benson W. Hough	Coolidge (R)	1925–1935
Smith Hickenlooper	Harding (R)	1923–1929
John Weld Peck	Wilson (D)	1919–1923
Howard Clark Hollister	Taft (R)	1910–1919
Albert Clifton Thompson	McKinley (R)	1898–1910
George Read Sage	Arthur (R)	1884–1898
William White	Arthur (R)	1883–1883
Philip Bergen Swing	Grant (R)	1871–1882
Humphrey Howe Leavitt	Reassigned	1855–1871
John Elbert Sater	T. Roosevelt (R)	1924

Magistrate judges

Appointed by the judges of this district to renewable 8-year terms, not nominated by the president or confirmed by the Senate. They handle pretrial matters, misdemeanors, and many civil cases by consent.

Magistrate judge	Years
Peter B. Silvain Jr.	2021–present
Chelsey M. Vascura	2017–present
Kimberly A. Jolson	2016–present
Michael J. Newman	2011–present
Stephanie K. Bowman	2010–present
Elizabeth Preston Deavers	2010–present
Karen L. Litkovitz	2010–present
Sharon L. Ovington	2002–present
Terrence Peter Kemp	1987–present
Michael R. Merz	1984–present
Norah Mccann King	1982–present
Mark R Abel	1971–2015

Bankruptcy court

U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Ohio

6 currently serving · 9 in history

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 1855. This court is also served by magistrate judges, listed above, whom the district’s own judges appoint. Read more on how federal judges are appointed.

Source: FJC Biographical Directory and CourtListener / Free Law Project (bulk data). Data as of 2026-08-10 (FJC); magistrates 2026-03-31 (CourtListener bulk snapshot). Verify against the primary source before relying.