John Malcolm Duhé Jr.

John Malcolm Duhé Jr. (born April 7, 1933, in Iberia Parish, Louisiana), is an inactive Senior United States Circuit Judge of the New Orleans-based United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Family

Duhé is descended from a wealthy old-line Republican family. His grandfather, Jean (pronounced JOHN) Paulin Duhé (May 7, 1885 – May 2, 1961) of New Iberia, was the president of the New Iberia National Bank, head of the Duhe-Bourgeois Sugar Company, president of the Edmundson-Duhe rice mill, third vice-president of the trade association, the American Sugar Cane League, and the president of the St. Martin-Iberia-St. Mary Flood Control Association. Paulin Duhé was the GOP candidate for the Louisiana's 3rd congressional district seat in 1948, having been defeated by the Democrat Edwin E. Willis. J. Paulin Duhe was also an unsuccessful presidential elector candidate in 1960 for Richard M. Nixon and Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. Duhe's former father-in-law was Democratic U.S. Representative F. Edward Hébert of New Orleans, who held Louisiana's 1st congressional district seat from 1941-77. Duhe was married to Hébert's only child, Dawn Marie; the couple had four children.

Education and career

Duhé received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Tulane University in New Orleans in 1955 and his Juris Doctor from the Tulane University Law School in 1957. He served as an attorney in private practice in New Iberia, Louisiana from 1957 to 1978.^[1]

Judicial service

From 1979 to 1984, Duhé was judge of the Louisiana 16th Judicial District in New Iberia.^[1]

Duhé was nominated by President Ronald Reagan on May 15, 1984, to a seat on the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana vacated by Judge W. Eugene Davis. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on June 8, 1984, and received commission on June 11, 1984. His service terminated on November 9, 1988, due to elevation to the Fifth Circuit.^[1]

Duhé was nominated by President Reagan on June 27, 1988, to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit vacated by Judge Albert Tate Jr.. Duhé had not been Reagan's first choice for the appeals court. The president first nominated former Republican Governor David C. Treen, however, Democratic senators refused a confirmation vote on Treen. Duhé was confirmed by the Senate on October 14, 1988, and received commission on October 17, 1988. He assumed senior status on April 7, 1999. He took inactive senior status in 2011.^[1]

Clerks

Among Duhé's law clerks were Washington College of Law (American University) professor David Snyder, and Ernest Metzger, the Douglas Professor of Civil Law at the University of Glasgow in Scotland.

References

Sources

• John Malcolm Duhe Jr. at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.