Richard Lee Young (born January 3, 1953) 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 U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district. Each district covers one U.S. state or a portion of a state. There is at least one feder ...

of the

United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana The United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana (in case citations, S.D. Ind.) is a federal district court in Indiana. It was created in 1928 by an act of Congress that split Indiana into two separate districts, northern a ...

Education and career

Born in

Davenport Davenport may refer to: Places Australia *Davenport, Northern Territory, a locality *Hundred of Davenport, cadastral unit in South Australia **Davenport, South Australia, suburb of Port Augusta **District Council of Davenport, former local govern ...

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

, Young received a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree from

Drake University Drake University is a private university in Des Moines, Iowa, United States. The University offers over 140 undergraduate and graduate programs, including professional programs in business, education, Legal education, law, and pharmacy. Drake U ...

in 1975 and a

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

from

George Mason University School of Law The Antonin Scalia Law School is the law school of George Mason University, Virginia's largest public research university. It is located in Arlington, Virginia, roughly west of Washington, D.C., and east-northeast of George Mason University's ...

in 1980. He was in private practice in

Evansville Evansville is a city in Vanderburgh County, Indiana, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 118,414 at the 2020 census, it is Indiana's third-most populous city after Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, the most populous city in S ...

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

from 1980 to 1990, also serving as a public defender (part-time) for the Vanderburgh Circuit Court from 1983 to 1985, and as corporation counsel to the City of Evansville, from 1985 to 1987. He was a circuit judge of the Vanderburgh Circuit Court from 1990 to 1998.

Federal judicial service

On July 15, 1997, Young was nominated by President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...

to a seat on the

vacated by Gene Edward Brooks. The

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

confirmed Young by an 81–0 vote on March 2, 1998. He received his commission on March 6, 1998. He served as Chief Judge from 2009 to 2016. He assumed senior status on March 31, 2023. On June 25, 2014, Judge Young struck down Indiana's ban on same-sex marriage without issuing a stay of his ruling. This ruling was affirmed by the

United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (in case citations, 7th Cir.) is the U.S. United States federal court, federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the United States district court, courts in the following United Stat ...

and review was denied by the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...

. In 2021, Judge Young ruled in favor of Roncalli High School after they dismissed a guidance counselor in a same-sex marriage ruling that guidance counselors at a religious school fall under the "

ministerial exception The ministerial exception, sometimes known as the ecclesiastical exception, is a legal doctrine in the United States barring the application of anti-discrimination and other laws governing the employment relationship between a religious institutio ...

" from discrimination based on

sexual orientation Sexual orientation is an enduring personal pattern of romantic attraction or sexual attraction (or a combination of these) to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. Patterns ar ...

in employment cases. On July 28, 2024, Young blocked an Indiana law requiring adult websites to take reasonable precautions to verify the age of their users, arguing that it would be ineffective and constituted a potential violation of privacy. On March 5, 2025, Young ordered the Indiana Department of Corrections to provide sex change surgery to an inmate convicted of murdering his infant stepdaughter, arguing that not doing so constituted "cruel and unusual punishment" in violation of the Eighth Amendment.

References

Sources

* , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Young, Richard L. 1953 births 20th-century American judges 21st-century American judges Antonin Scalia Law School alumni Drake University alumni Judges of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana Living people People from Davenport, Iowa Public defenders United States district court judges appointed by Bill Clinton