John Emmett Carland

John Emmett Carland (December 11, 1853 – November 11, 1922) was a United States federal judge.

Born in Oswego County, New York, Carland attended the University of Michigan, and read law in 1877 to enter the Bar. He entered private practice in Bismarck, in what was then Dakota Territory, and was also city attorney of Bismarck and county attorney of Burleigh County. He was the U.S. Attorney for the Dakota Territory from 1885 to 1888, and a Justice of the Dakota territorial Supreme Court in 1888 and 1889. Returning to private practice in Sioux Falls, South Dakota from 1889 to 1895, Carland was a delegate to the North Dakota state constitutional convention from Burleigh County in 1889, and also served as a special assistant to the U.S. attorney for the District of South Dakota.

On August 31, 1896, Carland received a recess appointment from President Grover Cleveland to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of South Dakota vacated by Alonzo J. Edgerton. Formally nominated on December 8, 1896, Carland was confirmed by the United States Senate on December 15, 1896, and received his commission the same day. On December 12, 1910, Carland was nominated by President William H. Taft to a seat on the newly created United States Commerce Court, and to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Both seats were created by 36 Stat. 539, which provided that Commerce Court judges would be simultaneously appointed to one of the U.S. Courts of Appeals, and would eventually rotate out of service on the Commerce Court and onto that Court of Appeals. Carland was confirmed to the joint appointment by the United States Senate on January 31, 1911, and received his commission the same day. The Commerce Court was abolished on December 13, 1913, and Carland thereafter served on the Eighth Circuit until his death in 1922, in Washington, D.C. He was interred at Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington, D.C.

Sources

• John Emmett Carland at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.