Keith P. Ellison

Who is Keith P. Ellison?

Keith P. Ellison is a judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. His chambers are in Houston, Texas.

Educated first at Harvard College, from which he received a B.A. from Harvard University in 1972, Ellison was awarded a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford where he studied at Magdalen College, receiving a second B.A. in 1974. He received his Juris Doctor from Yale Law School in 1976.

After graduating from Yale, he clerked for Judge J. Skelly Wright on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He then clerked for Justice Harry Blackmun on the Supreme Court during the October 1977 term, before entering private practice in Houston, Texas.

On January 26, 1999, Ellison was nominated by President Bill Clinton to a seat on the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas vacated by Norman W. Black. Ellison was confirmed by the United States Senate on June 30, 1999, and received his commission on July 7, 1999. His chambers were in Laredo, Texas, until 2005 when his duty station transferred to Houston.