Court History

Click the below links to learn about the history of the Southern District of West Virginia.

Judges of the Southern District of West Virginia

Date of Commission	Judge's Name	President Appointed by
October 17, 2019	Frank William Volk	Donald J. Trump
November 9, 2009	Irene Cornelia Berger	Barack Obama
April 17, 2006	Thomas E. Johnston	George W. Bush
September 18, 1997	Robert Charles Chambers	William J. Clinton
May 10, 1995	Joseph Robert Goodwin	William J. Clinton
November 25, 1991	David A. Faber	George H.W. Bush
November 14, 1983	Elizabeth Virginia Hallanan	Ronald Reagan
December 21, 1979*	William Matthew Kidd	Jimmy Carter
September 13, 1979	Robert Jackson Staker	Jimmy Carter
September 3, 1976	John Thomas Copenhaver, Jr.	Gerald Ford
November 21, 1975	Charles Harold Haden II	Gerald Ford
December 6, 1971**	Kenneth Keller Hall	Richard M. Nixon
December 18, 1970	Dennis Raymond Knapp	Richard M. Nixon
May 1, 1964	Sidney Lee Christie	Lyndon B. Johnson
August 13, 1959***	John A. Field, Jr.	Dwight D. Eisenhower
March 27, 1941	Benjamin Franklin Moore	Franklin D. Roosevelt
March 3, 1937	Harry Evan Watkins	Franklin D. Roosevelt
July 25, 1921	George Warwick McClintic	Warren G. Harding
December 17, 1901	Benjamin Franklin Keller	William McKinley
August 3, 1861****	John Jay Jackson, Jr.	Abraham Lincoln

* Service terminated on January 14, 1983, due to reassignment to the Northern District of West Virginia
** Service terminated on September 26, 1976, due to appointment to U. S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
*** Service terminated on October 7, 1971, due to appointment to U. S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
**** Assigned to the District of West Virginia on June 11, 1864, from the Western District of Virginia; served in the District of West Virginia June 11, 1864 until July 1, 1901. Reassigned to the Northern District of West Virginia on July 1, 1901.