President Joseph Biden has nominated U.S. Magistrate Dana Douglas of New Orleans to one of two open seats on the U.S. Court of Appels for the Fifth Circuit.
An African American jurist who practiced energy litigation, products liability and intellectual property law during her 17 years in corporate law, Judge Douglas would be the first woman of color to serve on the Fifth Circuit.
Both U.S. senators from Louisiana issued statements Wednesday that indicated they were open to voting in favor of Judge Douglas’s confirmation.
A graduate of Loyola University New Orleans College of Law, Judge Douglas worked for 17 years as a litigator at Liskow & Lewis, a 140-lawyer firm with offices in New Orleans and Houston. She served as president of the New Orleans Bar Association.
If confirmed, Judge Douglas would replace Fifth Circuit Judge James Dennis, who took senior status in 2021.
President Biden has one additional judgeship to fill on the Fifth Circuit. Judge Gregg Costa resigned earlier this year.
Judge Douglas has made news headlines twice during her three years as a federal magistrate. In March 2020, she sanctioned New Orleans lawyer Fred Salley for interrupting a deposition 145 times.
Salley was defending a company being sued by one of its employees for a workplace injury.
“Of the 255-page transcript of the deposition, Salley appears on 170 pages,” Judge Douglas wrote. “Salley objected 106 times, 52 of which were lengthy speaking objections. There are long, speaking objections that cover entire pages of the transcript. One speaking objection and Salley’s attendant argument, which followed a question asking the deponent when an affidavit was signed, covers in excess of six pages of the transcript.”
Judge Douglas also found that Salley instructed the witness not to answer 16 times, although he did not have a valid reason under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
Later in 2020, Judge Douglas issued a finding to dismiss a lawsuit brought by a Muslim inmate claiming Terrebonne Parish jail officials refused to provide religious items in order for him to worship.
The judge wrote that the inmate’s lawsuit was frivolous and “fails to state a claim on which relief may be granted.”
“The prisoner did not allege that he was forbidden to possess and use those religious items; rather, he simply complained that prison officials refused to furnish the items, free of charge, for his use,” Douglas wrote.