Mary Ann Vial Lemmon Explained

Mary Ann Vial Lemmon
Office:Senior Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana
Term Start:January 1, 2011
Office1:Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana
Term Start1:July 25, 1996
Term End1:January 1, 2011
Appointer1:Bill Clinton
Predecessor1:Peter Beer
Successor1:Jane Triche Milazzo
Birth Name:Mary Ann Vial
Birth Date:22 November 1941
Birth Place:New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
Education:Loyola University New Orleans (BA, JD)

Mary Ann Vial Lemmon (born November 22, 1941)[1] is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Education and career

Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, Lemmon attended Loyola University New Orleans and continued as a law student on that campus, to receive a Juris Doctor from Loyola University New Orleans School of Law in 1964. Lemmon was in private practice in Hahnville, Louisiana, from 1964 to 1975. She was a law clerk for her husband Judge Harry T. Lemmon, on the Court of Appeal, Fourth Circuit of Louisiana, from 1975 to 1980, and she continued with him as his law clerk on his elevation to the Supreme Court of Louisiana from 1980 to 1981.

Judicial service

Lemmon was a Judge pro tempore of Louisiana District Court for Louisiana's Twenty-third Judicial District from 1981 to 1982. She was a judge on the Louisiana District Court for Louisiana's Twenty-ninth Judicial District from 1982 to 1996. She was a Judge pro tempore, Court of Appeal, First Circuit, Louisiana, in 1990. Lemmon was a federal judge on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Lemmon was nominated by President Bill Clinton on December 19, 1995, to a seat vacated by Peter Beer. She was confirmed by the United States Senate on July 10, 1996, and received her commission on July 25, 1996. She assumed senior status on January 1, 2011.[2]

Notable case

In June 2009, Lemmon was in the news as the jurist who denied a request by Mose Jefferson to delay his trial on bribery charges also involving former Louisiana legislator Renée Gill Pratt and former Orleans Parish School Board president Ellenese Brooks-Simms.[3]

Personal life

Lemmon married Harry T. Lemmon, a New Orleans attorney who would later become an Associate Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court, with whom Lemmon had six children.[4] [5]

Notes and References

  1. Book: Hearings before the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, One Hundred Fourth Congress, Second Session, on Confirmations of Appointees to the Federal Judiciary, February 28; March 27; May 2; June 25; July 31; September 24, 1996. 597. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1997.
  2. Web site: Lemmon, Mary Ann Vial - Federal Judicial Center. www.fjc.gov.
  3. Laura Maggi, "Mose Jefferson asks judge to dismiss case" in Times-Picayune, 2009 June 8, Saint Tammany Edition, p. B2 (web version = Jefferson fails in bid to push back trial: School Board case set to start Aug. 1 accessed 2009 June 26).
  4. Web site: Harry Thomas Lemmon (Born 1930). https://web.archive.org/web/20190608080334/http://www.lasc.org/Bicentennial/justices/Lemmon_Harry.aspx. dead. June 8, 2019. Louisiana Supreme Court. May 15, 2020.
  5. "Harry Lemmon will observe anniversary with retirement", The Morgan City Daily Review (March 30, 2001), p. 1, 12.