Tom Stagg Thomas Eaton " Tom " Stagg , Jr . ( born January 19 , 1923 ) is an attorney , businessman , politician and jurist who served as a senior United States federal judge for the Western District of Louisiana since his appointment by President Richard M . Nixon in the spring of 1974 . Stagg ' s court is based in his hometown of Shreveport , Louisiana . Education and military record . Stagg was born to Thomas Eaton Stagg , Sr . and the former Beulah Meyer . He graduated in 1939 from C . E . Byrd High School in Shreveport . He attended Marion Military Institute in Marion , Alabama , and Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge , where he completed his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1943 . Stagg served from a second lieutenant to captain in the United States Army during World War II , from 1943 to 1946 . He was awarded the Combat Infantryman Badge , Bronze Star for Valor , a second Bronze Star for meritorious service and the Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster for his wounds received in battle . Stagg married the former Mary Margaret O ' Brien on August 21 , 1946 . They have two daughters : Julie and Margaret Mary . Legal practice and business activities . After the war , Stagg briefly attended Cambridge University in Great Britain and then the LSU Law Center , where he received his Juris Doctor in 1949 . He began the practice of law with the firm of Hargrove , Guyton , Van Hook , and Hargrove , in Shreveport . He was a solo practitioner from 1953 – 1958 ; thereafter , he became the senior partner with Stagg , Cady , Johnson , and Haygood and the successor firm , Stagg , Cady , and Beard . While he maintained his law practice , Stagg was vice - president of King Hardware Co . , from 1955 - 1974 . He was president of the Abe Meyer Corporation in Shreveport from 1960 - 1974 . He was a managing partner of the Pierremont Mall Shopping Center from 1963 to 1974 . He was president of Stagg Investments , Inc . , from 1964 to 1974 . He has been a managing partner of Camellia Trading Company since 1974 . He hence divested himself of most of his business dealings when he was sworn in as judge . Political activities . A Republican since 1949 , Stagg was the Republican National Committeeman from Louisiana from 1964 to 1972 , a member of the executive committee of the Republican National Committee from 1964 – 1968 , and a five - time delegate to GOP national conventions , from 1956 to 1972 . He served on the platform committees in 1960 , 1964 , and 1968 . He is also a former member of the Caddo Parish Republican Executive Committee and the Louisiana Republican State Central Committee . On February 6 , 1968 , Stagg ran unsuccessfully for the Louisiana State Senate when he sought one of three at - large seats from Caddo Parish . He polled 16 , 341 votes in the general election , but he fell 6 , 536 votes behind the bottom - ranked Democrat in the race , conservative incumbent Jackson B . Davis , who , like Stagg , had supported Republican Barry M . Goldwater for president in 1964 . Joining Davis in the Caddo Senate delegation were J . Bennett Johnston , Jr . , and Joe LeSage , two Shreveport attorneys . In the 1968 Republican convention meeting in Miami Beach , Stagg supported Nixon ' s second bid for the party ' s presidential nomination . " Time " magazine quoted national committeeman Stagg : We ' ve had our shot at a candidate who totally met our qualifications [ Goldwater in 1964 ] , and that candidate got six states . We ' ve had our druthers . Now shall we win one ? " Stagg described as " not viable " last - minute efforts by some party conservatives , including Louisiana Republican leader David C . Treen , to draft then California Governor Ronald W . Reagan for the presidential nomination . Running for Louisiana attorney general , 1972 . In 1972 , Stagg became the Republican nominee for Louisiana attorney general on a ticket headed by gubernatorial candidate David Treen . Stagg was seeking to fill the seat being vacated by long - term Democratic incumbent Jack P . F . Gremillion , a protégé of the late Earl Kemp Long , who had been eliminated in the 1971 party primary because of corrupt practices in office . Stagg faced the Democratic primary winner , one - term State Senator William J . " Billy " Guste , Jr . , of New Orleans , but party affiliation worked heavily to Guste ' s advantage . Guste and Stagg were virtually the same age . Stagg won the endorsement of the since defunct " Shreveport Journal " : an editorial hailed him as " a man of considerable force . . . considered by his colleagues in the law fraternity to be a man of brilliance . " The " Shreveport Journal " also noted that for years Stagg had " fought for the southern viewpoint in national Republican party conventions . " Guste prevailed in the race with 763 , 276 votes ( 74 . 1 percent ) to Stagg ' s 270 , 038 ( 25 . 9 percent ) . Stagg won only his native Caddo Parish with 54 percent of the ballots cast , and he finished with at least 43 percent in six other north Louisiana parishes . Guste went on to serve twenty years as attorney general . Two other statewide Republican nominees also won in Caddo Parish , Treen for governor and Robert L . Frye , a native of Webster Parish who was then a professor at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond , who challenged the Democrat Louis J . Michot of Lafayette . After his race for attorney general , Stagg vacated the position of Republican national committeeman in favor of David Treen . Stagg also announced that he was considering running for the U . S . Senate in 1972 for the seat held by Democrat Allen J . Ellender , who died during the primary campaign . Stagg said that he would need " money , support , and possibilities of success , rather than just running as an exercise . " Stagg never ran for the Senate , and the position was taken for eighteen years by Stagg ' s former rival for the state Senate , J . Bennett Johnston , Jr . Stagg did win one election : a nonpartisan contest in the summer of 1972 as a delegate to the Louisiana Constitutional Convention of 1973 . He served as chairman of both the Temporary Rules Committee and the Executive Department Committee . Federal judicial service . On February 18 , 1974 , Stagg was nominated to the judicial seat vacated by Benjamin C . Dawkins , Jr . Stagg was confirmed by the United States Senate on March 7 , 1974 , and received his commission on March 8 , 1974 . He was sworn in as judge on April 26 , 1974 . He served as chief judge from 1984 to 1991 , and assumed senior status on February 29 , 1992 , but still maintains a full staff and case assignment . In addition to trial court duties , he has served on panels in several federal circuit courts of appeal . His full - time position was filled in 1994 by Tucker L . Melancon , appointee of Democratic President Bill Clinton . As a judge , Stagg has handled a plethora of cases in a career that exceeds thirty - five years . In 2006 Stagg sentenced Chevelle “ Big Mook ” Hamilton ( born 1978 ) to sixteen years in federal prison without parole for his role in drug trafficking and weapons violations in the Shreveport area . Hamilton had pleaded guilty to the charges . Stagg denounced Hamilton from the bench as " the leader of a group of criminals that brought cocaine to this market regularly on a kilo basis . . . This will take Mr . Hamilton off the street long enough to where his lust for freedom will succeed his lust for criminal behavior . " Federal indictments had been brought against Hamilton and six others in August 2005 , as a result of an intense investigation that spanned some eighteen months and involved several law enforcement agencies . Police said that they had broken up a major drug - trafficking ring that had a propensity toward violence . Defending a 1993 " junket " . Stagg came under fire from the " Washington Post " for his attendance at a Law and Economics Center seminar in 1993 . The judge defied his critics , dismissed complaints about propriety , and declared that he would be eager for a second stay at the island resort , Hilton Head , South Carolina . " The food was wonderful ; the teachers were wonderful . If somebody doesn ' t like it , I ' m sorry . " The " Post " had revealed something that many Americans did not know : that federal judges , like congressmen , also take junket s , which are often never reported , that are sometimes of questionable value to the taxpayers who underwrite their salaries and benefits . Honors from alma maters . In 1990 , Stagg was named to the Byrd High School Hall of Fame . In 2004 , Stagg was presented the LSU Paul M . Hebert Law Center ' s Distinguished Alumnus award , which came on the 30th anniversary of his judicial service . A fellow Shreveporter , Robert G . Pugh , who had served with Stagg at the Constitutional Convention , received the honor in 2003 . Therefore , a joint recognition service was held a the Shreveport Petroleum Club on October 14 , 2004 , in honor of both Pugh and Stagg . Stagg expressed surprised on his selection : " Upon considering the merit of those recipients who have preceded me , I am very proud to be named the distinguished alumnus for 2004 . " Stagg ' s papers , including his constitutional convention activities , are filed in the archives section of Louisiana State University at Shreveport . The collection includes working papers , committee proposals , resolutions and memoranda , files of newspaper clippings , correspondence , pamphlets , and published notes and studies on developing the Louisiana Constitution of 1974 .