Eighth Circuit
William Duane Benton
Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
Appointment
- Court
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
- Title
- Judge
- Appointed by
- George W. BushRepublican president
- Seat
- CA80309
- Nominated
- Feb. 12, 2004
- Committee hearing
- April 8, 2004
- Committee action
- Reported (favorably)April 29, 2004
- Senate vote
- Voice
- Confirmed
- June 24, 2004
- Commissioned
- July 2, 2004
- ABA rating
- Well Qualified
- Senior status
- June 21, 2026
Source Federal Judicial Center, Biographical Directory of Article III Judges. Party shown is the party of the appointing president, which is a fact about the president, not about the judge.
Nominations
Senate nominations naming this judge — their own appointment, or a nomination to the seat they are leaving.
| Nominee | Court | Received | Outcome | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Justin D. Smith PN851-7 | Eighth Circuit | March 2, 2026 | Confirmed | 48–43 |
Source Congress.gov. A nomination appears here when the name matches this judge exactly; the Federal Judicial Center record above remains the authority for service actually served.
Recent judicial activity
Opinions authored and panels sat on, most recent first.
- No recorded activity.
Cases
Appellate cases on which this judge sat, drawn from panel information published with each decision.
No panel assignments recorded in the ingested window.
Judicial writings
No writings are attributed to this judge in the ingested records.
Source Authorship is recorded only where the source data carries it. For recent Courts of Appeals opinions CourtListener frequently publishes the decision as a single document without naming the authoring judge, so an absence here means the attribution is unavailable upstream — not that the judge has written nothing.