Edward Lodge (b. 1933, Caldwell, Idaho) is a federal judge on the United States District Court for the District of Idaho in Boise, Idaho. He is the husband of Idaho State Senator Patti Anne Lodge.
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Lodge was a two-time All-American football player at Boise Junior College in 1953 and 1954.[1] He later earned his B.A. from the College of Idaho in 1957, and graduated from the University of Idaho College of Law with his J.D. in 1961.[2]
Following law school, Lodge practiced law in Idaho from 1960 to 1963. He began his long judicial career in 1963 as a Probate Judge in Canyon County, Idaho, and later became the youngest person ever appointed to the District Court in Idaho. He served for nearly 25 years as a District Judge for the Third Judicial District in Canyon County, Idaho, and was later appointed as a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the District of Idaho from 1988 to 1989.[3]
After Judge Marion J. Callister took senior status in 1989, Lodge was nominated by Senator James McClure to fill Callister's seat on the United States District Court for the District of Idaho. President George H.W. Bush appointed Lodge to the position, and he was confirmed with unanimous consent from the Senate on November 21, 1989. Lodge served a term as Chief Judge for the District of Idaho from 1992 to 1999, and was succeeded as Chief Judge by B. Lynn Winmill.
In 1998, Lodge acted as the presiding Judge in the case of Idaho vs Lon T. Horiuchi, which involved the indictment of the FBI sniper who shot three people during the Ruby Ridge Standoff. Lodge cited the Supremacy Clause and dismissed the charges against Horiuchi, which angered many who felt the leniency was unmerited.
In 2004, Lodge presided over the trial of Sami Omar Al-Hussayen—accused of recruiting Islamic fanatics into participating in Jihad against the United States. On May 13, he ruled to disallow a defense witness to refer to a blood drive that Hussayen had run after September 11th to help the victims, nor that he had widely condemned the attacks.
Lodge was investigated by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals over his relationship to the US Bank (Then WestOne Bank) during the 1980s, which drew criticism when he presided over his inlaws' bankruptcy proceedings, while the bank overlooked the non-disclosure of over $1 million in assets which then became the property of the judge's wife, Patty Lodge. On June 28, 1995, he was subsequently forbidden from presiding over any cases that involved the bank, though he continued to preside over such cases when the bank was officially renamed.
The Argus Observer would later lay out what it claimed were 16 examples of bankruptcy fraud that Lodge had knowingly been involved in, and Republican Representative Helen Chenoweth-Hage drew flak for receiving earlier reports of Lodge's dealings and failing to act on them.