Richard George Kopf (born 1946 in Toledo, Ohio) is a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska. He served as chief judge of that court from 1999-2004. President George H. W. Bush nominated Kopf to the seat in 1992. From 1987 to 1992, Kopf served as a magistrate judge in the same district.[1]
Kopf has received considerable press coverage for abortion-related decisions, particularly for his 474-page opinion striking down a ban on late-term abortions in Carhart, et al., v. Ashcroft.[2] His decision included the following apology: "I apologize for the length of this opinion. I am well aware that appellate judges have plenty to do and that long-winded opinions from district judges are seldom helpful....I pity the poor appellate judge who has to slog through this thing. I am truly sorry."[3]
In 2007 Kopf dismissed a case over the use of the words "rape" and "sexual assault" in a rape trial in Lancaster County, Nebraska. Tory Bowen had filed a lawsuit against Judge Jeffre Cheuvront for violating her right to free speech in a rape trial; Kopf dismissed the suit because Bowen had not shown enough evidence to demonstrate her lawsuit was not frivolous. Cheuvront had barred the words "rape" and "sexual assault" from the trial, but allowed words such as "sexual intercourse" and "intercourse" to be used instead.[4]
Kopf received his B.A. from Kearney State College (now the University of Nebraska at Kearney) in 1969 where he was a member of Phi Kappa Tau fraternity. He received his J.D. from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln College of Law in 1972. He was a law clerk for Judge Donald Ross in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit for two years following law school and then entered private practice in Lexington, Nebraska. In 1984, he served as counsel for the State of Nebraska in the impeachment of the Nebraska Attorney General.
Kopf has served as president of the historical society for the Eighth Circuit and is administrator of the Robert Van Pelt Inn of Court, a legal professional organization.