Kurt Damian Engelhardt (born April 21, 1960) is a

United States circuit judge In the United States, federal judges are judges who serve on courts established under Article Three of the U.S. Constitution. They include the chief justice and the associate justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, the circuit judges of the U.S. ...

of the

United States 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 * M ...

. Previously, he was the Chief 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 A ...

Education and career

Born in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

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 ...

, Engelhardt attended Brother Martin High School in New Orleans, 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 year ...

degree 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 1982 and a Juris Doctor from

Louisiana State University Law Center The Paul M. Hebert Law Center, often styled "LSU Law", is a public law school in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It is part of the Louisiana State University System and located on the main campus of Louisiana State University. Because Louisiana is a c ...

in 1985. He was a law clerk to Judge Charles Grisbaum of the Louisiana Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal from 1985 to 1987. He was in private practice in

from then until 2001, first at the law firm of Little & Metzger and then at Hailey, McNamara, Hall, Larmann & Papale LLP. Concurrent with his private practice, he was appointed by the Governor of Louisiana to serve on the Louisiana Judiciary Commission, which adjudicates statewide ethics complaints against judges. In 1998, he was elected Chairman of the Commission by his fellow members. He has been a member of the New Orleans chapter of the

Federalist Society The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies (abbreviated as FedSoc) is an American conservative and libertarian legal organization that advocates for a textualist and originalist interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. Headquarter ...

since 2002.

Federal judicial service

District court service

On September 4, 2001, Engelhardt 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 ...

to a seat on the

vacated by Morey Leonard Sear. Engelhardt 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 December 11, 2001, and received his commission on December 13, 2001. He served as Chief Judge from October 1, 2015 to May 15, 2018. During his service on the bench, Engelhardt served on the Judicial Conference Committee of Federal-State Jurisdiction, appointed in 2004 by Chief Justice

William Rehnquist William Hubbs Rehnquist ( ; October 1, 1924 – September 3, 2005) was an American attorney and jurist who served on the U.S. Supreme Court for 33 years, first as an associate justice from 1972 to 1986 and then as the 16th chief justice from ...

and reappointed in 2007 by Chief Justice

John Roberts John Glover Roberts Jr. (born January 27, 1955) is an American lawyer and jurist who has served as the 17th chief justice of the United States since 2005. Roberts has authored the majority opinion in several landmark cases, including '' Nat ...

. From 2011 to 2012, he served as President of the New Orleans Chapter of the Federal Bar Association. His service on the district court terminated on May 15, 2018, upon elevation to the court of appeals.

Court of Appeals service

On September 28, 2017, President

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

announced his intent to nominate Engelhardt to the

, transmitting the nomination to the

on October 5, 2017. He was nominated to the seat being vacated by Judge

Edith Brown Clement Edith "Joy" Brown Clement (born April 29, 1948) is a Senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, based in New Orleans, Louisiana. Background Clement was born in Birmingham, Alabama, the daug ...

, who had announced her intention to assume

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

upon the confirmation of her successor. The

American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of aca ...

unanimously rated Engelhardt as "Well Qualified", the committee's highest rating. On January 3, 2018, his nomination was returned to the President under Rule XXXI, Paragraph 6 of the

. On January 5, 2018, President

announced his intent to renominate Engelhardt to a federal appellate judgeship. On January 8, 2018, his renomination to the same seat was sent to the Senate, and a hearing on his nomination before the Senate Judiciary Committee was held on January 10, 2018. On February 8, 2018, the Senate Judiciary Committee reported his nomination out of committee by a 15–6 vote. On May 7, 2018, the Senate invoked cloture on his nomination by a 64–31 vote. On May 9, 2018, his nomination was confirmed by a 62–34 vote. He received his judicial commission on May 10, 2018.

References

External links

* * , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Engelhardt, Kurt Damian 1960 births Living people 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century American lawyers 21st-century American judges Judges of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Lawyers from New Orleans Louisiana State University alumni Louisiana State University Law Center alumni United States district court judges appointed by George W. Bush United States court of appeals judges appointed by Donald Trump