Brian J. Davis
Brian Jordan Davis (born January 28, 1953) is a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida. Biography. Davis received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1974 from Princeton University. He received his Juris Doctor from 1980 from the Fredric G. Levin College of Law at the University of Florida. He worked as an attorney at Mahoney, Hadlow & Adams, P.A. from 1980 to 1982 and at Brown, Terrell, Hogan, Ellis, McClamma & Yegelwel from 1988 to 1991. He worked as an Assistant State Attorney from 1982 to 1988. He served  as Chief Assistant State Attorney in the Fourth Judicial Circuit from 1991 to 1994. He served as a Circuit Judge for the Fourth Judicial Circuit of Florida from 1994 to 2013. Federal judicial service. On February 29, 2012, President Barack Obama nominated Davis to serve as a United States District Judge on the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida. He would replace Judge Richard A. Lazzara who took senior status in 2011. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 10–7 to report Davis' nomination to the full United States Senate on June 21, 2012. Although Davis' nomination has  enjoyed the support of his two home-state senators, several other senators, including Chuck Grassley have opposed it, based largely on a speech that Davis gave to his local NAACP chapter in 1995. Grassley had charged that Davis' answers to certain questions suggested a bias in favor of African-Americans and a lack of impartiality. On January 2, 2013, Davis' nomination was returned to the President, due to the sine die adjournment of the Senate. On January 3, 2013, he was renominated to the same office. The Senate Judiciary Committee then reported Davis' nomination to the full Senate floor on  October 31, 2013. On December 16, 2013, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid filed for cloture on Davis' nomination, attempting to end a Republican-led filibuster of Davis' nomination. On December 20, 2013, senators voted to invoke cloture in a 56–36 Senate vote. Immediately after the cloture vote, the Senate confirmed Davis to his seat by a vote of 68–26. He received his commission on December 26, 2013.