© 2017 The Texas Lawbook.
By Mark Curriden
(March 27) – Chief Justice John Roberts has appointed Carl Stewart, the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, to the seven-member Executive Committee of the U.S. Judicial Conference.
The EC also tackles emergency matters presented to it by Chief Justice Roberts.
The Judicial Conference has 25 members, including the chief judge of every federal circuit court of appeals and one federal district judge from each circuit.
The trial judge for the Fifth Circuit is Chief U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal of Houston.
Chief Judge Stewart received his undergraduate degree magna cum laude from Dillard University in 1971 and his J.D. from Loyola University New Orleans School of Law in 1974. Immediately following admission to the Louisiana Bar Association in October 1974, he entered the United States Army, duty stationed at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio and served as a captain in the Judge Advocate General Corps until October 1977.
Following his military service, Chief Judge Stewart served as a staff attorney with the Louisiana Attorney General’s office, assistant United States Attorney, special assistant city and district attorney.
In 1985, he was elected as a district judge for the First Judicial District Court of Caddo Parish, Louisiana, and was reelected without opposition five years later. In 1991, again without opposition, he was elected to the Louisiana Second Circuit Court of Appeal.
President Bill Clinton appointed Judge Stewart as United States Circuit Judge on May 9, 1994. Judge Stewart is the second African American appointed to the Fifth Circuit. The first to hold that distinction was Joseph W. Hatchett of Tallahassee, Florida, who was appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1979 and served from 1996 to 1999 as Chief Judge of the newly created Eleventh Circuit, which was formed as a result of the 1981 split of the Fifth Circuit.
In 2015, Judge Stewart became the first African American to serve as Chief Judge of the Fifth Circuit.
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