Don Albert Pardee

Who was Don Albert Pardee?

Don Albert Pardee was a United States federal judge.

Born in Wadsworth, Ohio, Pardee read law to enter the Bar in 1859, and was in private practice in Medina County, Ohio from 1859 to 1861. He was in the United States Army during the American Civil War from 1861 to 1865, returning to private practice in New Orleans, Louisiana from 1865 to 1868. He was a Register in Bankruptcy in New Orleans in 1867, and a judge on the Second Judicial District of Louisiana from 1868 to 1880. He was a Delegate to the Louisiana Constitutional Convention in 1879, and an unsuccessful Republican candidate for state attorney general of Louisiana in 1879. He was again in private practice in New Orleans from 1880 to 1881.

On March 14, 1881, Pardee was nominated by President James A. Garfield to a seat on the United States circuit court for the Fifth Circuit vacated by the elevation of William Burnham Woods to the United States Supreme Court. Pardee was confirmed by the United States Senate on May 13, 1881, and received his commission the same day. On June 16, 1891, Pardee was reassigned by operation of law to the newly created United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, serving thereafter until his death, in Atlanta, Georgia. Having spent over 38 years on the federal bench, he was President Garfield's longest-serving judicial appointee.