S. Arthur Spiegel (October 24, 1920 – December 31, 2014) was a

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 Ohio The United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio (in case citations, S.D. Ohio) is one of two United States district courts in Ohio and includes forty-eight of the state's eighty-eight counties—everything from the Columbus, Oh ...

Education and career

Born in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, Spiegel 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 the

University of Cincinnati The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati, informally Cincy) is a public university, public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1819 and had an enrollment of over 53,000 students in 2024, making it the ...

in 1942. He enlisted in the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expeditionar ...

, serving in the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

from 1942 to 1946 and achieving the rank of captain. He received a

Bachelor of Laws A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

from

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...

in 1948 and was in private practice in Cincinnati from 1948 to 1980.

Federal judicial service

On April 14, 1980, Spiegel was nominated by President

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...

to a seat on the

vacated by Judge

David Stewart Porter David Stewart Porter (September 23, 1909 – January 5, 1989) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. Education and career Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Porter received an Artium Ba ...

. Spiegel was confirmed by 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 ...

on May 21, 1980, and received his commission on May 23, 1980. He assumed senior status on June 5, 1995. In April 2005 a federal prison inmate named Tony Erpenbeck was indicted on federal charges that he had made attempts to have Spiegel and a prosecutor murdered. Spiegel had previously sentenced Erpenbeck to prison for obstruction of justice.

Personal

Spiegel wrote a book titled ''A Trial On Its Merits'', which was published in 2009, and he continued to hear cases until shortly before his death. Spiegel died on December 31, 2014, in Cincinnati. He and his wife had four sons.

References

Sources

* 1920 births 2014 deaths 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century American judges Harvard Law School alumni Judges of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio Lawyers from Cincinnati United States district court judges appointed by Jimmy Carter United States Marine Corps officers United States Marine Corps personnel of World War II University of Cincinnati alumni Writers from Cincinnati {{US-federal-judge-stub