U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas is a United States district court, a federal trial court where most federal civil and criminal cases are first heard. It lies within the Fifth 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Hayden Wilson Head Jr. | Reagan (R) | 1981 |
| Ricardo H. Hinojosa | Reagan (R) | 1983 |
| Lynn Nettleton Hughes | Reagan (R) | 1985 |
| David Hittner | Reagan (R) | 1986 |
| Kenneth M. Hoyt | Reagan (R) | 1988 |
| Simeon Timothy Lake III | Reagan (R) | 1988 |
| Melinda Harmon | Bush (R) | 1989 |
| John David Rainey | Bush (R) | 1990 |
| Lee Hyman Rosenthal | Bush (R) | 1992 |
| Ewing Werlein Jr. | Bush (R) | 1992 |
| Janis Graham Jack | Clinton (D) | 1994 |
| Hilda G. Tagle | Clinton (D) | 1998 |
| Keith P. Ellison | Clinton (D) | 1999 |
| Randy Crane | Bush (R) | 2002 |
| Andrew S. Hanen | Bush (R) | 2002 |
| Micaela Alvarez | Bush (R) | 2004 |
| Gray Hampton Miller | Bush (R) | 2006 |
| Marina Garcia Marmolejo | Obama (D) | 2011 |
| Nelva Gonzales Ramos | Obama (D) | 2011 |
| Diana Saldaña | Obama (D) | 2011 |
| Alfred Homer Bennett | Obama (D) | 2015 |
| George Carol Hanks Jr. | Obama (D) | 2015 |
| Jose Rolando Olvera Jr. | Obama (D) | 2015 |
| Fernando Rodriguez Jr. | Trump (R) | 2018 |
| Jeffrey Vincent Brown | Trump (R) | 2019 |
| Charles R. Eskridge III | Trump (R) | 2019 |
| David Steven Morales | Trump (R) | 2019 |
| Drew Barnett Tipton | Trump (R) | 2020 |
| John Andrew Kazen | Biden (D) | 2024 |
| Nicholas Jon Ganjei | Trump (R) | 2026 |
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 1902.
Source: FJC Biographical Directory. Data last verified 2026-06-28. Verify against the primary source before relying.