Edward Lesley Stanton III (born 1972) is a former

United States attorney United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal c ...

for the Western District of Tennessee and is a former nominee to be a

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the United States federal judiciary, U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each United States federal judicial district, federal judicial district, which each cover o ...

of the

United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee The United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee (in case citations, W.D. Tenn.) is the federal district court covering the western part of the state of Tennessee. Appeals from the Western District of Tennessee are taken to ...

Biography

Stanton was born in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

in 1972 and is a lifelong Memphian, graduating from Central High School in Memphis. Stanton received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree in political science in 1994 from the

University of Memphis } The University of Memphis (UofM) is a public university, public research university in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1912, the university has an enrollment of more than 22,000 students. The university maintains the Herff College of Engineering ...

. He received a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

in 1997 from the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law at the University of Memphis. A member of

Alpha Phi Alpha Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. () is the oldest intercollegiate historically African American fraternity. It was initially a literary and social studies club organized in the 1905–1906 school year at Cornell University but later evolved int ...

fraternity, Stanton was initiated into the University of Memphis chapter (Kappa Eta) in 1991. He began his career as an associate in the Law Offices of Charles E. Carpenter, P.C., from 1997 to 2000. He served as an assistant city attorney for the City of Memphis Law Division, from 2000 to 2001. From 2001 to 2002, he was an associate in the Memphis office of the law firm Armstrong Allen PLLC. From 2002 to 2010, he was senior counsel in the litigation department of

FedEx FedEx Corporation, formerly Federal Express Corporation and later FDX Corporation, is an American multinational conglomerate holding company focused on transportation, e-commerce and business services based in Memphis, Tennessee. The name "Fe ...

. From 2010 to 2017, he served as

for the Western District of Tennessee.

Service as United States attorney

On April 14, 2010, President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

nominated Stanton to be United States attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, in lieu of David F. Kustoff, who had resigned. His nomination was reported by the

Senate Judiciary Committee The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, informally the Senate Judiciary Committee, is a standing committee of 22 U.S. senators whose role is to oversee the Department of Justice (DOJ), consider executive and judicial nominations, a ...

on June 24, 2010 and he was confirmed by

voice vote In parliamentary procedure, a voice vote (from the Latin ''viva voce'', meaning "live voice") or acclamation is a voting method in deliberative assemblies (such as legislatures) in which a group vote is taken on a topic or motion by responding vo ...

on August 5, 2010. He received his commission and was sworn in on August 16, 2010. He resigned on February 28, 2017.

Expired nomination to district court

On May 21, 2015, President Barack Obama nominated Stanton to serve as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, to the seat being vacated by Judge Samuel H. Mays Jr., who took

senior status Senior status is a form of semi-retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the Federal judiciary of the United States, federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of servi ...

on July 1, 2015. He received a hearing before the

on September 30, 2015. On October 29, 2015 his nomination was reported out of committee by

.United States Senate Judiciary Committee: Results of Executive Business Meeting – October 29, 2015
/ref> His nomination expired on January 3, 2017, with the end of the

114th Congress The 114th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States of America federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from Ja ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stanton, Edward Lesley III 1972 births Living people 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century American lawyers Lawyers from Memphis, Tennessee United States Attorneys for the Western District of Tennessee University of Memphis alumni 20th-century African-American lawyers