George Carol Hanks Jr. (born September 25, 1964) is 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 Southern District of Texas The United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas (in case citations, S.D. Tex.) is the federal district court with jurisdiction over the southeastern part of Texas. The court's headquarters is in Houston, Texas and has six ad ...

Biography

Hanks was born in 1964, in

Breaux Bridge Breaux Bridge (;Jack A. Reynolds. "Breaux Bridge" entry i"Louisiana Placenames of Romance Origin."LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses #7852. 1942. p. 77. french: Pont-Breaux; frc, Pont-(de)-Breaux ) is a small city in St. Martin Parish, Loui ...

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

. He graduated first in his class from

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...

in 1986, receiving 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 ...

summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...

. 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 1989 from

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

. He received a

Master of Laws A Master of Laws (M.L. or LL.M.; Latin: ' or ') is an advanced postgraduate academic degree, pursued by those either holding an undergraduate academic law degree, a professional law degree, or an undergraduate degree in a related subject. In mos ...

degree in 2014 from

Duke University Law School Duke University School of Law (Duke Law School or Duke Law) is the law school of Duke University, a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. One of Duke's 10 schools and colleges, the School of Law is a constituent academic unit th ...

. He began his legal career by serving as a

law clerk A law clerk or a judicial clerk is a person, generally someone who provides direct counsel and assistance to a lawyer or judge by researching issues and drafting legal opinions for cases before the court. Judicial clerks often play significant ...

for Judge

Sim Lake Simeon Timothy Lake III (born July 4, 1944) is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas. His notable trials include the trial of Enron Chairman Ken Lay and former Chief Executiv ...

of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, from 1989 to 1991. He served as an associate at the law firm of

Fulbright & Jaworski Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P. (now Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP), was founded in Houston, TX in 1919 by R.C. Fulbright. On June 3, 2013, the firm became part of the global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright, a Swiss verein. Norton Rose Fulbright US L ...

, from 1991 to 1996, and as a shareholder at the law firm of Wickliff & Hall, PC, from 1996 to 2000. In 2001, he was appointed by Governor

Rick Perry James Richard Perry (born March 4, 1950) is an American politician who served as the 14th United States secretary of energy from 2017 to 2019 and as the 47th governor of Texas from 2000 to 2015. Perry also ran unsuccessfully for the Republica ...

to be a District Judge for the 157th Civil District Court of

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. He was subsequently elected to the position in 2002. In 2003, he was again appointed by Governor Perry to serve as a justice of the First Court of Appeals of Texas. He was elected to the position in 2004 and reelected in 2006. From September 13, 2010 to April 22, 2015, he served as a

United States magistrate judge In United States federal courts, magistrate judges are judges appointed to assist U.S. district court judges in the performance of their duties. Magistrate judges generally oversee first appearances of criminal defendants, set bail, and conduct ...

of the Southern District of Texas.

Federal judicial service

On September 18, 2014, 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 Hanks to serve as a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, to the seat vacated by Judge

Nancy Atlas Nancy Ellen Friedman Atlas (born May 20, 1949) is a former United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas. Early life and education Born in New York City, Atlas received a Bachelor of Science ...

, who assumed

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 June 20, 2014. His nomination was praised by both Senators

John Cornyn John Cornyn III ( ; born February 2, 1952) is an American politician and attorney serving as the senior United States senator from Texas, a seat he has held since 2002. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the Senate majority whip for ...

and

Ted Cruz Rafael Edward "Ted" Cruz (; born December 22, 1970) is an American politician and attorney serving as the junior United States Senator from Texas since 2013. A member of the Republican Party, Cruz served as Solicitor General of Texas from ...

. On December 16, 2014 his nomination was returned to the President due to the

sine die In mathematics, sine and cosine are trigonometric functions of an angle. The sine and cosine of an acute angle are defined in the context of a right triangle: for the specified angle, its sine is the ratio of the length of the side that is oppo ...

adjournment of the

113th Congress The 113th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, from January 3, 2013, to January 3, 2015, during the fifth and sixth years of Barack Obama's presidency. It was composed of the ...

. On January 7, 2015, President Obama renominated him to the same position. He received a hearing before the Judiciary Committee on January 21, 2015. On February 26, 2015 his nomination was reported out of committee 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 April 20, 2015 the United States Senate confirmed him by a 91–0 vote. He received his judicial commission on April 22, 2015, and was assigned to the Galveston Division of the Southern District of Texas. He is the first African-American federal judge to preside over the

Galveston Galveston ( ) is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Galvesto ...

court. Hanks has been mentioned as a possible nominee to the

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (in case citations, 5th Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following federal judicial districts: * Eastern District of Louisiana * Mi ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hanks, George C. Jr. 1964 births Living people African-American judges African-American lawyers Duke University School of Law alumni Harvard Law School alumni Judges of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas United States district court judges appointed by Barack Obama 21st-century American judges Louisiana State University alumni People from Breaux Bridge, Louisiana Texas lawyers Texas state court judges United States magistrate judges

Biography

Federal judicial service

See also

References

External links