James L. Dennis

James L. Dennis
Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
Incumbent
Assumed office October 2, 1995
Appointed by	Bill Clinton
Preceded by	Charles Clark
Personal details
Born	James Leon Dennis (1936-01-09) January 9, 1936 (age 85) Monroe, Louisiana
Political party	Democratic
Education	Louisiana Tech University (BA) LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center (JD) University of Virginia School of Law (LLM)

James L. Dennis (born January 9, 1936) is a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, with chambers in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Education and career[]

Born in Monroe in Ouachita Parish, Louisiana to Jenner Leon Dennis (1901-1970) and the former Hope Taylo, Dennis served in the United States Army from 1955 to 1957 and is affiliated with the American Legion. In 1959, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Louisiana Tech University in Ruston. In 1962, he obtained a Juris Doctor from the Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert Law Center in Baton Rouge. Much later in 1984, he procured a Master of Laws from the University of Virginia School of Law in Charlottesville, Virginia. He was named to the Order of the Coif.^[1] From 1962 to 1972, he was in private practice with the law firm of Hudson, Potts & Bernstein in Monroe, Louisiana. He served as a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1968 to 1972. He was succeeded in that position by his fellow Democrat, later Republican, , a Monroe businessman.^[2]

State judicial service[]

Dennis became a judge on the Fourth Judicial District Court of Louisiana, based in Monroe and served for two years from 1972 to 1974. He then served on the Louisiana Circuit Court of Appeal for the Second Circuit, based in Shreveport, from 1974 to 1975. From 1975 to 1995, he was an associate justice of the seven-member Supreme Court of Louisiana.^[2]

Federal judicial service[]

On January 31, 1995, Dennis was nominated by President Bill Clinton to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit vacated by Charles Clark. Dennis was confirmed by the United States Senate on September 28, 1995, and received his commission on October 2, 1995.^[2]

Dennis is a liberal, and has been criticized by his conservative colleagues Edith Jones and Edith Brown Clement.^[3][4]

Dennis will assume senior status when his successor is confirmed by the Senate.^[5]

Notable cases[]

Abortion[]

In 2014, Dennis wrote a 62 page dissent when the 5th Circuit denied an en banc rehearing for a Texas abortion law, which a 3 judge panel had upheld.^[6] The 5th Circuit was overturned by the Supreme Court in Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt in 2016.

On January 18, 2019, in June Medical Services, LLC v. Gee, Dennis wrote a 19 page dissent when the 5th Circuit refused to rehear a case regarding Louisiana's abortion restrictions. Dennis found that Act 620 was intended to restrict abortions, not to further women's health. Dennis also found it similar to the Texas abortion ban in 2016. Dennis also saw these restrictions as a violation of Roe v. Wade, burdensome for women who need abortions, and depriving women of a constitutionally protected healthcare right. Dennis's dissent included noting that "70% of women seeking abortions in Louisiana would be unable to obtain one" which would be "an undue burden on a large fraction of women."^[7] Dennis' dissent was joined by Patrick Higginbotham, James E. Graves Jr., and Stephen A. Higginson.

On March 30, 2020, Dennis dissented when the 5th Circuit permitted Texas' abortion ban to go on in the wake of COVID-19. Dennis wrote: "A federal judge has already concluded that irreparable harm would flow from allowing the Executive Order to prohibit abortions during this critical time. I would deny the stay. Moreover, I write separately to make clear that, per the Executive Order, “any procedure that, if performed in accordance with the commonly accepted standard of clinical practice, would not deplete the hospital capacity or the personal protective equipment needed to cope with the COVID-19 disaster” is exempt."^[8]

In the August 19, 2021 decision Whole Woman's Health v. Ken Paxton, Dennis dissented when a majority of the judges voted to uphold a law that bans a "dilation and evacuation", a common procedure used in second term abortions.^[9] Dennis's 40 page dissent concluded with "And while the plurality laments the amount of time SB8 has been enjoined, that is time in which women in Texas were shielded from the ill effects of a law that is clearly unconstitutional in light of Stenberg, 530 U.S. at 938-39, and the great burdens the statute places on abortion access with exceedingly few reciprocal benefits. That the shield is withdrawn today and that women in Texas will be forced to undergo invasive and unsafe techniques to exercise their constitutional right to an abortion—if it does not prevent their exercising that right altogether—is a devastating blow to their self-determination. I hope only that this opinion gives voice to a mod- icum of their frustration, anger, and pain. Once again, I respectfully but emphatically dissent."^[10]

Death penalty[]

Dennis dissented when the 5th circuit, by a vote of 10-7, approved the exclusion of expert evidence in a case where a mother was sentenced to death for allegedly murdering her two-year old daughter. The dissenters argued that given her history of having been abused, her confession at interrogation should have been reviewed by a psychologist who "would have testified that Lucio was a "battered woman"". The decision was handed down on February 9, 2021.^[11]

Gender identity[]

In January 2020, Dennis filed a "blistering" dissent when another judge issued an advisory opinion and denied an prisoner's appeal to update her document to include her preferred gender pronouns. That judge went further and argued that it should be a judge's choice whether to refer to transgender people by their preferred gender pronouns. The judge referred to the prisoner as a "him". Dennis questions that judge's ability to issue an advisory opinion, and writes ""Ultimately, the majority creates a controversy where there is none". Citing 9 cases between 1993 and 2018 where transgender people are referred to by their preferred pronouns, Dennis writes "Such an advisory opinion is inappropriate, unnecessary, and beyond the purview of federal courts".^[12][13]

Medicaid[]

On November 23, 2020, Dennis wrote a 25-page dissent when the 5th circuit, by a 11-5 vote, permitted Texas and Louisiana to cut Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood. Dennis warned: "I respectfully call on my colleagues to heed the admonitions of the June Medical Court and Chief Justice Roberts, to apply the principles of stare decisis “to keep the scale of justice even and steady, and not liable to waver with every new judge’s opinion,” June Med. Servs. L.L.C., 140 S. Ct. at 2134 (Roberts, C.J., concurring in the judgment) (quoting 1 W. Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England 69 (1765)), and to reconsider its decision to overrule circuit precedent and eviscerate Medicaid patients’ freedom of choice." (Dennis, J., dissenting) ^[14]

Native Americans[]

On August 9, 2019, Dennis wrote the majority opinion in a case that upheld the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). Dennis was joined by Jacques L. Wiener, Jr., while Judge Priscilla Owen dissented in part.^[15] In Brackeen v. Haaland on March 25, 2021, his judgment was affirmed in part and reversed in part. Dennis wrote the part of the majority opinion that held that parts of the ICWA are constitutional. He dissented regarding the parts of the ICWA that a majority of the en banc 5th circuit struck down; Dennis, along with Judges Wiener, Stewart, Graves, Higginson, and Costa, argued that the entire ICWA is constitutional. Dennis's March 2021 opinion totaled 153 pages in length.^[16]

Offshore drilling[]

Dennis was one of three judges on a panel that heard 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.^[17]

Voting Rights[]

On July 20, 2016, Dennis was in a narrow majority that struck down SB 14, Texas's voter ID law. In a concurring opinion, Dennis stated that he would go further than the majority; in his view, SB 14 was enacted with a racially discriminatory purpose. "Court documents". Google Scholar. July 20, 2016. Retrieved May 20, 2021.

On May 17, 2021, Dennis was one of three judges who ruled that a Louisiana judge's September 2020 order that expanded mail balloting and early voting is now moot because the 2020 election has passed.^[18]

Notes[]

References[]

• James L. Dennis at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.

Legal offices
Preceded by Charles Clark	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit 1995–present	Incumbent