Louis Charles Bechtle (December 14, 1927 – December 22, 2024) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Louis Charles Bechtle
Pennsylvania Eastern District Court
Chief Judge — U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
Born 1927 in Philadelphia, PA
Died 2024 in Audubon, PA
FJC ID: 134
Career output and lasting influence
Opinions attributed per year · peak 1/year
Later decisions citing those opinions, per year · peak 8/year
Pennsylvania Eastern District Court · 1972–2001
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
Member · 1994–2001
U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania1969–1972- Private practice, Norristown, Pennsylvania1962–1969
- Private practice, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania1959–1962
- Eastern District of PennsylvaniaAssistant U.S. attorney · 1956–1959
U.S. Army1946–1947
Appointments
1972–2001 · Appointed by Richard M. Nixon (Republican)Term ended: Retirement
Education
- Temple University School of Law (now James E. Beasley School of Law)LL.B. · 1954
- Temple UniversityB.S. · 1951