Julia Smith Gibbons

Julia Smith Gibbons
Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
Incumbent
Assumed office July 31, 2002
Appointed by	George W. Bush
Preceded by	Gilbert S. Merritt Jr.
Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee
In office 1994–2000
Preceded by	Odell Horton
Succeeded by	James Dale Todd
Judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee
In office June 7, 1983 – August 2, 2002
Appointed by	Ronald Reagan
Preceded by	Harry W. Wellford
Succeeded by	J. Daniel Breen
Personal details
Born	(1950-12-23) December 23, 1950 Pulaski, Tennessee
Spouse	Bill Gibbons
Education	Vanderbilt University (B.A.) University of Virginia School of Law (J.D.)

Julia Smith Gibbons (born December 23, 1950 in Pulaski, Tennessee) is a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

Education and career

Gibbons grew up in the rural Tennessee town of Pulaski. Gibbons received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Vanderbilt University and a Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia School of Law. After graduation, she served as a law clerk to Sixth Circuit Judge William Ernest Miller. She was in private practice from 1976 to 1979 before joining Governor Lamar Alexander's staff as a legal advisor in 1979. In 1981, she left the Governor's staff to become a state trial judge in Tennessee.

Federal judicial service

District Court service

In 1997, Gibbons sentenced Alice Marie Johnson to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Gibbons was nominated by President Ronald Reagan on April 12, 1983, to a seat on the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee vacated by Judge Harry W. Wellford. She was confirmed by the United States Senate on June 6, 1983, and received commission on June 7, 1983. She served as Chief Judge from 1994 to 2000. Her service terminated on August 2, 2002, due to elevation to the Sixth Circuit. In 2003, she discussed her views on women in the judiciary at a University of Virginia School of Law event.

Court of Appeals service

Gibbons was nominated by President George W. Bush on October 9, 2001, to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit vacated by Judge Gilbert S. Merritt Jr. She was confirmed by the Senate by a vote of 95 to 0 on July 29, 2002, and received commission on July 31, 2002. Gibbons was the first judge nominated to the Sixth Circuit by Bush and confirmed by the Senate.

Personal

Her husband, Bill Gibbons, is the former District Attorney General of Shelby County, Tennessee, the county that contains Memphis. Bill Gibbons was a 2010 Republican gubernatorial candidate for the state of Tennessee.

External links

• Julia Smith Gibbons at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a publication of the Federal Judicial Center.