Edward Earl Carnes

Carnes occasionally gives speeches on effective writing and on metaphors in the law, including to Harvard Law School 1L students on April 5, 2013, Emory Law School students on November 2, 2011, University of Georgia Law School 1L students on January 28, 2010, and University of Alabama School of Law 1L students on an annual basis.

Carnes was nominated by President George H. W. Bush on January 27, 1992 for the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit to a seat vacated by Judge Frank Minis Johnson. To Carnes' opponents, he was a poor choice to succeed Judge Johnson, a hero of the civil rights movement who had declared that the segregated buses of Montgomery, Alabama were illegal. Some compared replacing Johnson with Carnes to Bush's earlier decision to replace Thurgood Marshall with Clarence Thomas. Nonetheless, his nomination might have sailed through the Senate if not for the Rodney King incident, which encouraged Senate Democrats to use Carnes' nomination as a chance to stump against racism in the criminal justice system.

After eight months and a Democratic filibuster, Carnes was confirmed by the United States Senate on September 9, 1992 by a vote of 62 for and 36 against. He received his commission the following day. He assumed office on October 2, 1992, and has served as Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit since August 1, 2013.

From 1981 to 1992 he served as the Chief of the Capital Punishment and Post-Conviction Litigation Division of the Alabama State Attorney General's Office. As the head of Alabama capital punishment unit, Carnes became, according to the National Law Journal, "the premier death penalty advocate in the country and a chief adviser on capital punishment to judges, the U.S. Justice Department and other prosecutors." Carnes re-wrote Alabama's death penalty statute, and defended its use before the Supreme Court of the United States on three occasions, including Beck v. Alabama, 447 U.S. 625.

Carnes received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Alabama in 1972. He received his Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1975. After law school, he accepted a position as an assistant state attorney general for the state of Alabama, where he served from 1975 to 1992.

Edward Earl Carnes (born June 3, 1950) is the Chief United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. In October 2019, Judge Carnes announced his intention to take senior status at a to-be-determined date.