Stanwood Richardson Duval, Jr. (born February 8, 1942,[1] is a U.S. District Court judge in the Eastern District of Louisiana. He was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1994.,[2] and has his chambers in New Orleans.
Judge Duval is best known for having issued an injunction in 2000 which barred the State of Louisiana from issuing "Choose Life" vanity automobile license plates, as the legislature had approved in 1999. Duval ruled in favor of Planned Parenthood of America, which took the view that the choice of displaying the plates violated the First Amendment to the United States Constitution because there was no alternative display available for supporters of abortion. Judge Duval's opinion was unanimously reversed by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans on April 13, 2005. A petition for rehearing en banc was filed by the plaintiffs, and it was denied by an eight to eight vote of a divided court.[3] [4] [5]
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Duval was born in New Orleans to Stanwood Richardson Duval, Sr. (1913–2001), and the former Bonnie Parker Faught. He grew up in Houma, the seat of Terrebonne Parish, where his father operated a successful insurance business and was prominent in community affairs. He graduated from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, in 1964, and from the LSU law school in 1966. He was in the private practice of law in Houma from 1966–1994, when he assumed his seat on the federal bench. Having been confirmed by the U.S. Senate on September 28, 1994, Duval succeeded Judge George Arceneaux, Jr. He was also the assistant city attorney of Houma from 1970–1972 and the attorney for the consolidated Terrebonne Parish government from 1988-1993.[6]
A Democrat, Duval is a nephew of former state Senator Claude Berwick Duval, I, (1914–1986), a conservative Democrat who represented mostly Terrebonne and neighboring St. Mary Parish between 1968 and 1980. Judge Duval's brother, C. Berwick Duval, II (born November 1, 1955), is a prominent Houma attorney.[7]
The judge became an object of political consideration in the 2003 gubernatorial campaign, when the unsuccessful Republican candidate, Bobby L. Jindal, lashed out at "liberal" judges. According to WWL-TV's website: "A campaign mailing by supporters of . . . Jindal has a New Orleans-based federal judge and members of his Houma family seeing red. The literature, though it doesn't specifically name him, labels U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval, II, as a 'left-wing' jurist." [8]
Judge Duval also issued rulings in 2005 and 2006 in reference to the constitutional rights of victims of Hurricane Katrina. He extended the time that hurricane evacuees could continue receiving taxpayer-funded hotel stays.[9] In addition to the above Katrina rulings, on November 19, 2009, Judge Duval issued a ruling stating that the Army Corps of Engineers was negligent in maintaining flood protection that resulted in significant flooding during Hurricane Katrina.