John Allen Houston (born February 6, 1952) 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 Southern District of California.
Early life and education
Houston was born in
Greensboro, North Carolina. He attended Lincoln Junior High School and Ben. L. Smith High School.
He received a
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 from
North Carolina A & T State University
North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (also known as North Carolina A&T State University, North Carolina A&T, N.C. A&T, or simply A&T) is a public, historically black land-grant research university in Greensboro, North Caro ...
in 1974. In 1977 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 ...
from the
University of Miami School of Law
The University of Miami School of Law (Miami Law or UM Law) is the law school of the University of Miami, a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida.
Founded in 1926, the University of Miami School of Law is the oldest law school in ...
.
Career
Houston served in the
United States Army Judge Advocate General Corps from 1978 to 1981. He later served in the Army Reserve from 1981 to 2003. From 1981 to 1998, he served as an
assistant United States attorney
An assistant United States attorney (AUSA) is an official career civil service position in the U.S. Department of Justice composed of lawyers working under the U.S. Attorney of each U.S. federal judicial district. They represent the federal gove ...
of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of California; he served in the Chief Asset Forfeiture Unit from 1987 to 1994. From 1994 to 1996, Houston was a senior counsel for Asset Forfeiture, and from 1996 to 1998 he was senior financial litigation counsel.
Federal judicial service
From 1998 to 2003, Houston served as a
United States magistrate judge for the United States District Court for the Southern District of California in
San Diego. He was nominated by President
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
on May 1, 2003 to be a United States district judge of the same court. He was confirmed by the
United States Senate on October 2, 2003,
and received his commission on October 7, 2003. He assumed
senior status on February 6, 2018.
See also
*
List of African-American federal judges
*
List of African-American jurists
References
Sources
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Houston, John Allen
1952 births
Living people
African-American judges
Assistant United States Attorneys
Judges of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California
North Carolina A&T State University alumni
People from Greensboro, North Carolina
United States district court judges appointed by George W. Bush
United States magistrate judges
University of Miami School of Law alumni
21st-century American judges