Preceded by Harold Ryan Succeeded by vacant Succeeded by B. Lynn Winmill Nationality American | Appointed by George H. W. Bush Name Edward Lodge Preceded by Marion Callister | |
Born December 3, 1933 (age 90)
Caldwell, Idaho, U.S. ( 1933-12-03 ) | ||
Edward J. Lodge (born December 3, 1933) is a Senior United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Idaho in Boise, Idaho.
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Education
Born in Caldwell, Idaho, Lodge graduated from Caldwell High School and briefly attended the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. He was a two-time junior college All-American quarterback at Boise Junior College in 1953 and 1954. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from the College of Idaho in Caldwell in 1957, and graduated from the University of Idaho's College of Law in Moscow with a Bachelor of Laws in 1961.
Career
Following law school, Lodge practiced law in Idaho from 1962 to 1963. He began his long judicial career in 1963 as a Probate Judge in Canyon County, and in 1965 became the youngest ever appointed to a district court in Idaho, at age 31. Lodge served for nearly a quarter century as a district judge for the state's Third Judicial District in Canyon County, and presided at the double-murder trial of mountainman Claude Dallas in 1982, a case which received national notoriety. He was later appointed as a United States Bankruptcy Judge for the District of Idaho from 1988 to 1989.
Federal judicial service
When Judge Marion Jones Callister of the United States District Court in Boise took senior status in 1989, Lodge was recommended by Senator James A. McClure to fill the seat. On October 30, 1989, President George H. W. Bush nominated Lodge and he was confirmed with unanimous consent from the United States Senate on November 21, 1989. He received his commission on November 27, 1989. He served a term as chief judge for the District of Idaho from 1992 to 1999, and was succeeded as chief judge by B. Lynn Winmill. Lodge assumed senior status on July 3, 2015.
Personal
Lodge was the target of a foiled murder plot in 1998. He is married to Patti Anne Lodge, a state senator from Huston in Canyon County.
Lon Horiuchi
In 1998, Lodge acted as the presiding Judge in the case of Idaho v. Lon T. Horiuchi, which involved the indictment of the FBI sniper who shot three people during the Ruby Ridge standoff in 1992. Lodge cited the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution and dismissed the charges against Horiuchi, which angered many who felt the leniency was unmerited.
Sami Al-Hussayen
In 2004, Lodge presided over the trial of Sami Omar Al-Hussayen—accused of recruiting Islamic fanatics into participating in Jihad against the United States. On May 13, he ruled to disallow a defense witness to refer to a blood drive that Hussayen had run after September 11th to help the victims, nor that he had widely condemned the attacks.