Jeffrey Stuart Sutton (born October 31, 1960) is an American lawyer and jurist serving as the chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Sutton was appointed to the Sixth Circuit in 2003 by President George W. Bush and has served as its chief judge since 2021.
Jeffrey S. Sutton
Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals
Chief Judge — U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
Born 1960 in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
FJC ID: 3010
Career output and lasting influence
Opinions attributed per year · peak 22/year
Later decisions citing those opinions, per year · peak 315/year
Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals · 2003–
Both charts share the same year axis. Opinion counts include only opinions in our corpus attributed to this judge so far — a year at zero can mean an attribution gap, not judicial silence. Influence typically outlasts the career: citations keep climbing after the last opinion.
- Gender
- Male
- Race
- White
Prior employment
- Ohio State University College of LawAdjunct professor of law · 1994–present
- Judicial Conference of the United StatesMember · 2021–present
- Private practice, Columbus, Ohio1992–1995, 1998–2003
- State of OhioSolicitor · 1995–1998
Law clerk , Hon. Lewis Powell and Antonin Scalia · 1991–1992
Law clerk , Hon. Thomas Meskill · 1990–1991
Appointments
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth CircuitChief Judge2003–present · Appointed by George W. Bush (Republican)
Education
- Ohio State University College of Law (now Michael E. Moritz College of Law)LL.B. · 1990
- Williams CollegeB.A. · 1983