Name W. Davis Preceded by Robert Ainsworth Role Judge | Preceded by Richard Putnam | |
Alma mater Samford UniversityTulane University Education | ||
Succeeded by John Malcolm Duhe, Jr. | ||
Judge W. Eugene Davis
William Eugene Davis (born August 1936), known as W. Eugene Davis, is a Senior United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. His chambers are in Lafayette, Louisiana.
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Education
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 Juris Doctor in 1960 without having received an undergraduate degree (Samford awarded him a Bachelor of Arts degree in 2006). While at Tulane, Davis was a member of the Board of Editors of the Tulane Law Review.
Career
Davis 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.
Federal judicial service
On August 5, 1976, Davis was nominated by President Gerald Ford, to a seat on the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana vacated by Judge Richard Johnson Putnam. Davis was confirmed by the United States Senate on September 17, 1976, and received his commission on September 21, 1976. His service terminated on December 9, 1983, due to elevation to the Fifth Circuit.
President Ronald Reagan nominated Davis to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on November 1, 1983, to a seat vacated by Judge 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. He assumed senior status on December 31, 2016.
Notable case
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.