Stanwood Richardson Duval Jr. (born February 8, 1942)
[Net Detective, People Search] is a former
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
. He was appointed by
U.S. President
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...
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, ...
in 1994.
Early career
Duval was born to Stanwood Richardson Duval Sr. (1913–2001), and the former Bonnie Parker Faught. He was raised in
Houma, the seat of
Terrebonne Parish, where his father operated a successful insurance business and was prominent in community affairs. He graduated from
Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louis ...
in
Baton Rouge
Baton Rouge ( ; , ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It had a population of 227,470 at the 2020 United States census, making it List of municipalities in Louisiana, Louisiana's second-m ...
, in 1964 with 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, and from the
Louisiana State University Law School in 1966 with 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 ...
. He practiced law from 1966 to 1994 in Houma eventually becoming a senior partner of Duval, Funderburk, Sundbery and Lovell, LP. At the age of 31, Duval served as an elected delegate to the 1973 Louisiana Constitutional Convention, where he served on committees for rules of procedure and for the executive branch.
In 1994, he assumed his seat of the federal bench having been confirmed by the
U.S. Senate
The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the ...
on September 28, 1994. Duval succeeded Judge
George Arceneaux, who was Duval's former law partner, who died in office in 1993.
He was also the assistant city attorney of Houma from 1970 to 1972 and the attorney for the consolidated Terrebonne Parish government from 1988 to 1993.
Federal judicial service
Duval 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, ...
on July 15, 1994, to a seat vacated by Judge
George Arceneaux He 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 September 28, 1994, and received commission on September 29, 1994.
He served as a member of the Advisory Committee on Appellate Rules to the Judicial Conference of the United States Courts from 1997 to 2003, the Council of the Louisiana Law Institute from 1996 to 2000, and the Fifth Circuit Judicial Council from 2004 to 2007.
Attorneys evaluating his time on the bench commented that he was "an extremely bright guy and he's very knowledgeable about complex litigation as well as complex business transactions."
Some noted that he was "courteous, patient and approachable." "Lawyers who represent both plaintiffs and defendants in civil cases said Duval is neutral. . . . 'He has no leanings that are apparent.'"
He assumed senior status on December 15, 2008. His service terminated on January 31, 2017, due to retirement.
Family connections
A
Democrat, Duval is a nephew of former
state Senator
A state senator is a member of a State legislature (United States), state's senate in the bicameral legislature of 49 U.S. states, or a member of the unicameral Nebraska Legislature.
History
There are typically fewer state senators than there ...
Claude B. Duval, (1914–1986), a
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...
Democrat who represented mostly Terrebonne and neighboring
St. Mary Parish between 1968 and 1980 and ran unsuccessfully in 1964 for
lieutenant governor
A lieutenant governor, lieutenant-governor, or vice governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction. Often a lieutenant governor is the deputy, or lieutenant, to or ranked under a governor — a "second-in-comm ...
. Stanwood Duval's brother, C. Berwick Duval II (born November 1, 1955), is a prominent Houma attorney.
Notable rulings
Duval issued an
injunction
An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a special court order compelling a party to do or refrain from doing certain acts. It was developed by the English courts of equity but its origins go back to Roman law and the equitable rem ...
in 2000 which barred the State of Louisiana from issuing "Choose Life" vanity automobile license plates, as the legislature had approved in 1999. Duval ruled in favor of
Planned Parenthood of America, which took the view that the choice of displaying the plates violated the
First Amendment
First most commonly refers to:
* First, the ordinal form of the number 1
First or 1st may also refer to:
Acronyms
* Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array
* Far Infrared a ...
to the
United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, on March 4, 1789. Originally includi ...
because there was no alternative display available for supporters of abortion. Duval's opinion was unanimously reversed by the
Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans on April 13, 2005. A petition for rehearing en banc was filed by the plaintiffs and was denied by an eight to eight vote.
[Feminist Daily News 8/31/2000: "Choose Life" License Plates Blocked by Federal Judge](_blank)
/ref>
The judge became an object of political consideration in the 2003 gubernatorial
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the type of political region or polity, a ''governor'' ma ...
campaign, when Republican candidate, Bobby L. Jindal, lashed out at "liberal" judges. According to WWL-TV's website: "A campaign mailing by supporters of . . . Jindal has a New Orleans–based federal judge and members of his Houma family seeing red. The literature, though it doesn't specifically name him, labels U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval II, as a 'left-wing' jurist."
Most significantly, Duval presided over the litigation arising out of the Hurricane Katrina and the failure of the levee system. The court consolidated over 1,200 cases comprising hundred of thousands of claims and systematically adjudicated the lawsuits." Duval issued rulings in 2005 and 2006 in reference to the constitutional rights of victims of Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina was a powerful, devastating and historic tropical cyclone that caused 1,392 fatalities and damages estimated at $125 billion in late August 2005, particularly in the city of New Orleans and its surrounding area. ...
. He extended the time that hurricane evacuees could continue receiving taxpayer-funded hotel stays.['Judge orders one-month extension of FEMA hotel program for Katrina evacuees'](_blank)
''Santa Fe New Mexican'', December 12, 2005 In addition to the Katrina rulings, on November 19, 2009, Duval ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers was negligent in maintaining flood protection that resulted in significant flooding during Katrina. On March 3, 2012, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Duval's ruling, agreeing that the Corps had failed to maintain the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet.
Notes
References
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Duval, Stanwood Richardson Jr.
1942 births
Living people
People from Houma, Louisiana
Lawyers from New Orleans
Judges of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana
United States district court judges appointed by Bill Clinton
Louisiana State University alumni
Louisiana Democrats
20th-century American judges
21st-century American judges