John Malcolm Duhé Jr.

John Malcolm Duhé Jr. (born April 7, 1933, Iberia Parish, Louisiana) is a retired senior judge on the New Orleans-based United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. He subsequently practiced law in Lafayette.

Background

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.

Duhé received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Tulane University in New Orleans in 1955 and his legal credentials from the Tulane University Law School in 1957. 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.

Judicial service

From 1979 to 1984, Duhé was judge of the Louisiana 16th Judicial District in New Iberia. From 1984 to 1988, he served under appointment by U.S. President Ronald W. Reagan as judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, based in Lafayette. Several distinguished members of the bar clerked for Duhé, including 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.

In 1988, President Reagan named Duhé appellate judge, a position which he filled until 2011. He filled the seat vacated by the death of Judge Albert Tate Jr., of Opelousas, an appointee of U.S. President Jimmy Carter.

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 to allow a confirmation vote on Treen.

Sources

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