BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana has a new federal district court judge in its Western District.
Robert Summerhays was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Thursday, becoming the first new federal judge in Lafayette in more than 25 years.
That's according to Louisiana's U.S. Sens. Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy, Republicans who congratulated Summerhays on his appointment in a statement.
Cassidy touted Summerhays' experience, saying that will help the new judge clear a backlog of cases, since the Lafayette court has had the vacancy for more than a year.
Summerhays has been working as a federal bankruptcy judge in Louisiana's Western District since 2006, appointed as chief bankruptcy judge in 2009.
The Western District has courthouses in Lafayette, Lake Charles, Alexandria, Monroe and Shreveport.
