W. Eugene Davis

William Eugene Davis
Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
Incumbent
Assumed office November 16, 1983
Appointed by	Ronald Reagan
Preceded by	Robert Ainsworth
Judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana
In office September 21, 1976 – November 16, 1983
Appointed by	Gerald Ford
Preceded by	Richard Putnam
Succeeded by	John Duhé
Personal details
Born	August 1936 (age 88) Winfield, Alabama, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Alma mater	Samford University Tulane University

William Eugene Davis, known as W. Eugene Davis (born August 1936), is a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. His chambers are in Lafayette, Louisiana.

Born in Winfield in Marion County in northwestern Alabama, Davis attended Samford University in Homewood, a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama. After three years at Samford, he received a scholarship to Tulane University Law School in New Orleans. There he received his J.D. in 1960 without having received an undergraduate degree (Samford awarded him a bachelor's degree in 2006). While at Tulane, Davis was a member of the Board of Editors of the Tulane Law Review.

He was in private practice in New Orleans from 1960-64, and then joined a law firm in New Iberia, where his partners were until 1976 Pat Caffery and John Malcolm Duhé, Jr. In his private practice, he frequently represented the oil and gas industries.

On August 5, 1976, Davis was nominated by President Gerald R. Ford, Jr., to a seat on the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana vacated by Richard J. Putnam. Davis was confirmed by the United States Senate on September 17, 1976, and received his commission on September 21, 1976.

President Ronald W. Reagan nominated Davis for elevation to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on November 1, 1983, to a seat vacated by Robert Andrew Ainsworth, Jr., who died in 1981. Reagan at first considered Ben Toledano, a New Orleans lawyer and former Republican political candidate for the slot but withdrew the nomination after opposition surfaced from the NAACP. Davis was again confirmed by the United States Senate on November 15, 1983, and received his commission the following day.

Davis is one of three judges on a panel that will hear the appeal to Hornbeck Offshore Services LLC v. Salazar, a case challenging the U.S. Department of the Interior six month moratorium on exploratory drilling in deep water that was adopted in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon explosion and the subsequent oil spill. The Fifth Circuit panel denied the government's emergency request to stay the lower court's decision pending appeal.

External links

• W. Eugene Davis at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
• Gracella Simmons, "Ten questions with Judge W. Eugene Davis", Baton Rouge Bar Association, Oct. 1, 2006

Legal offices
Preceded by Richard Putnam	Judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana 1976–1983	Succeeded by John Duhé
Preceded by Robert Ainsworth	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit 1983–present	Incumbent