James Shelton Moody Jr. (born March 31, 1947) is a

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

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 Middle District of Florida.

Education and career

Moody was born in

Tampa Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough County ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. He received his

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

degree Degree may refer to: As a unit of measurement * Degree (angle), a unit of angle measurement ** Degree of geographical latitude ** Degree of geographical longitude * Degree symbol (°), a notation used in science, engineering, and mathematics ...

from the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

in 1969 and his

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 ...

from the Fredric G. Levin College of Law at the University of Florida in 1972. He is a member of

Florida Blue Key Florida Blue Key is a student leadership honor society at the University of Florida which was founded in 1923. History Founding and early years "Florida Blue Key was founded on November 1, 1923, several days prior to the University's Homecom ...

. From 1969 to 1972 he was a circulation manager for student publications at the

. Moody was in

private practice Private practice may refer to: *Private sector practice **Practice of law In its most general sense, the practice of law involves giving legal advice to clients, drafting legal documents for clients, and representing clients in legal negotiati ...

from 1972 to 1994. From 1983 to 1994 he served as Director of the Hillsboro SunTrust Bank. From 1993 to 1998 he served as Director of the United Way of Hillsborough County. From 1985 to 1997 he served as Director of the United Way of East Hillsborough County. From 1982 to 1994 he served as Vice President and later director of Moody & Moody, Inc. He was elected circuit judge of Florida's Thirteenth Judicial Circuit ( Hillsborough County), serving from 1995 to 2000.

Federal judicial service

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

nominated Moody to the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida on June 8, 2000, to a new seat created by 113 Stat. 1501.

Confirmed In Christian denominations that practice infant baptism, confirmation is seen as the sealing of the covenant created in baptism. Those being confirmed are known as confirmands. For adults, it is an affirmation of belief. It involves laying on ...

by the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

on July 21, 2000, he received commission on July 28, 2000. He 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 March 31, 2014. One notable case that he handled was that of Sami Al-Arian, whom he sentenced to the maximum 57 months in prison and three years of supervised release on May 1, 2006, for aiding a terrorist organization, the

Palestine Islamic Jihad The Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine ( ar, حركة الجهاد الإسلامي في فلسطين, ''Harakat al-Jihād al-Islāmi fi Filastīn''), known in the West simply as Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), is a Palestinian Islamist par ...

Personal life

Moody's daughter,

Ashley Ashley is a place name derived from the Old English words '' æsc'' (“ash”) and '' lēah'' (“meadow”). It may refer to: People and fictional characters * Ashley (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name ...

, was elected Attorney General of Florida in the 2018 election. His son, James S. Moody III, was appointed as a Florida circuit court judge by Governor Ron DeSantis in 2022.

References

Sources

*
Official profile
from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida {{DEFAULTSORT:Moody, James S. Jr. 1947 births Judges of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida Living people Lawyers from Tampa, Florida United States district court judges appointed by Bill Clinton University of Florida alumni Fredric G. Levin College of Law alumni Florida state court judges 20th-century American judges 21st-century American judges