Thomas Banister Russell (born November 15, 1945) is a former United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. He also served as a judge of the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court from 2015 to 2022. He served as a judge of the Alien Terrorist Removal Court from 2016 to 2021.
Thomas B. Russell
Kentucky Western District Court
Chief Judge — U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky
Born 1945 in Louisville, KY
FJC ID: 2077
Career output and lasting influence
Opinions attributed per year · peak 3/year
Later decisions citing those opinions, per year · peak 11/year
Kentucky Western District Court · 1994–2023
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
- Judicial Conference of the United StatesMember · 2019–2020
- Private practice, Paducah, Kentucky1970–1994
Appointments
1994–2023 · Appointed by William J. Clinton (Democratic)Term ended: Retirement
Education
J.D. · 1970- Western Kentucky UniversityB.A. · 1967