Mary Ann Vial Lemmon (born 1941) is a Senior United States district judge of the

United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana (in case citations, E.D. La.) is a United States federal court based in New Orleans. Appeals from the Eastern District of Louisiana are taken to the United States Court of Ap ...

Education and career

Born in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

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 ...

, Lemmon attended

Loyola University New Orleans Loyola University New Orleans is a Private university, private Jesuit university in New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana. Originally established as Loyola College in 1904, the institution was chartered as a university in 1912. It bears the name o ...

and continued as a law student on that campus, to receive 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 ...

from

Loyola University New Orleans School of Law Loyola University New Orleans College of Law is a private law school in New Orleans, Louisiana affiliated with Loyola University New Orleans. Loyola's law school opened in 1914 and is now located on the Broadway Campus of the university in the ...

in 1964. Lemmon was in private practice in Hahnville, Louisiana, from 1964 to 1975. She was 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 her husband Judge Harry T. Lemmon, on the Court of Appeal, Fourth Circuit of Louisiana, from 1975 to 1980, and she continued with him as his law clerk on his elevation to the Supreme Court of Louisiana from 1980 to 1981.

Judicial service

Lemmon was a Judge pro tempore of Louisiana District Court for Louisiana's Twenty-third Judicial District from 1981 to 1982. She was a judge on the Louisiana District Court for Louisiana's Twenty-ninth Judicial District from 1982 to 1996. She was a Judge pro tempore, Court of Appeal, First Circuit, Louisiana, in 1990. Lemmon was a federal judge on the

. Lemmon was nominated by President

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 ...

on December 19, 1995, to a seat vacated by Peter Beer. She was confirmed by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

on July 10, 1996, and received her commission on July 25, 1996.

Notable case

In June 2009 Lemmon was in the news as the jurist who denied a request by

Mose Jefferson Mose Oliver Jefferson (August 28, 1942 – May 12, 2011) was a member of the New Orleans family that includes his younger brother, former U.S. Representative William J. Jefferson. On 21 August 2009, Mose Jefferson was convicted on four felony counts ...

to delay his trial on bribery charges also involving former Louisiana legislator

Renée Gill Pratt Renée Gill Pratt (born 1954) is an American politician from New Orleans, Louisiana. She was also Director of the Center for Student Retention and Success in Southern University at New Orleans. On July 25, 2011, she was found guilty of racketeering ...

and former

Orleans Parish New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

School Board A board of education, school committee or school board is the board of directors or board of trustees of a school, local school district or an equivalent institution. The elected council determines the educational policy in a small regional are ...

president Ellenese Brooks-Simms.Laura Maggi, "Mose Jefferson asks judge to dismiss case" in ''Times-Picayune'', 2009 June 8, Saint Tammany Edition, p. B2 (web version
Jefferson fails in bid to push back trial: School Board case set to start Aug. 1
accessed 2009 June 26).

Personal life

Lemmon married Harry T. Lemmon, a New Orleans attorney who would later become an Associate Justice of the

Louisiana Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Louisiana (french: Cour suprême de Louisiane) is the highest court and court of last resort in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The modern Supreme Court, composed of seven justices, meets in the French Quarter of New Orlea ...

, with whom Lemmon had six children."Harry Lemmon will observe anniversary with retirement", ''The Morgan City Daily Review'' (March 30, 2001), p. 1, 12.

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lemmon, Mary Ann Vial 1941 births Living people Loyola University New Orleans alumni Louisiana Democrats Judges of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana United States district court judges appointed by Bill Clinton Lawyers from New Orleans People from Hahnville, Louisiana 20th-century American judges 21st-century American judges 20th-century American women judges 21st-century American women judges