Stephen M. Reasoner

Stephen Milhous Reasoner (May 7, 1944 – August 14, 2004) was a United States federal judge.

Born near Houston, Texas, Stephen Reasoner grew up in his hometown of Dickinson, Texas, was keenly interested in law and politics at an early age, joined the Young Republicans in 1960 and helped campaign for Senator John Tower; he graduated from Dickinson High School in 1962; he received a B.A. degree in economics from the University of Arkansas in 1966, and a J.D. degree (with honors) from the University of Arkansas School of Law in 1969, where he was also Editor-in-Chief of the Arkansas Law Review. He was in the United States Army Reserve from 1969 to 1973. He was in private law practice in Jonesboro, Arkansas from 1969 to 1988.

Reasoner was a federal judge on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas. Reasoner was nominated by President Ronald Reagan on December 19, 1987, to a seat vacated by William Ray Overton. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on February 25, 1988, and received his commission on February 26, 1988. He served as Chief Judge from 1991 to 1998. He assumed senior status on September 17, 2002. Reasoner served in that capacity until August 14, 2004, the day he died in Little Rock, Arkansas, following complications from open-heart surgery in May of that year; and he was buried in his childhood home town, Dickinson, Texas.

Sources

• Stephen M. Reasoner at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a publication of the Federal Judicial Center.