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Steven Douglas Merryday

Steven Douglas Merryday

Florida Middle District Court

Chief Judge — U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida

Born 1950 in Palatka, FL

FJC ID: 1627

Career output and lasting influence

Opinions attributed per year · peak 10/year

Florida Middle District Court · 1992–19922000201020202025100
opinions

Later decisions citing those opinions, per year · peak 21/year

Florida Middle District Court · 1992–19922000201020202025210
citing decisions

Florida Middle District Court · 1992–

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.

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Steven Douglas Merryday (born 1950) is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Merryday issued rulings that blocked the CDC from enforcing its public health rules regarding cruise ship operations and blocked the Navy from removing an insubordinate commander of a $1.8 billion warship who refused to comply with COVID-19 precautions and exposed others to COVID-19 while experiencing symptoms.

Full biography on Wikipedia ↗
Gender
Male
Race
White

Prior employment

  1. Private practice, Tampa, Florida
    1975–1992

Appointments

  1. Florida Middle District Court
    U.S. District Court for the Middle District of FloridaChief Judge
    1992–2025 · Appointed by George H.W. Bush (Republican)

Education

  1. University of Florida College of Law (now Fredric G. Levin College of Law)
    J.D. · 1975
  2. University of Florida
    B.A. · 1972