Department overview | |
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Formed | July 1, 1902 |
Jurisdiction | Southern District of Texas |
Headquarters | Houston, Texas, U.S. |
Department executives |
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Parent Department | United States Department of Justice |
Website | justice |
Map | |
The United States Attorney for the Southern District of Texas is the chief federal law enforcement officer in forty-three Texas counties. Established on July 1, 1902, the office represents the United States government in criminal and civil cases across the country. The SDTX handles a broad array of cases, including but not limited to those involving white collar crime, domestic terrorism, cybercrime, public corruption, organized crime, as well as civil rights disputes. [1]
In 1906, President Roosevelt named Lodowick “Lock” McDaniel of Grimes County, Texas, to be the first man appointed as the United States Attorney for the SDTX. Originally, the SDTX covered 36 counties. The court and the U.S. Attorney rotated between Galveston, Laredo, Brownsville and Houston which was a new seat for the court. Over the years, divisions were added, counties were transferred and divided and more judges and U.S. Attorney’s offices were opened. [2]
As of January 20,2025 [update] , the acting United States attorney is Jennifer B. Lowery. [3]
The office typically prosecutes more cases against more defendants than every other United States Attorney's Office nationwide, representing forty-three counties, ten million people and covering 44,000 square miles. The Southern District of Texas currently comprises seven divisions with federal district courts in Houston, Galveston, Victoria, Corpus Christi, Brownsville, McAllen and Laredo. The SDTX, headquartered in Houston, has branch offices in Galveston, Corpus Christi, Brownsville, McAllen, Laredo and Victoria to staff all seven divisions. The office employs approximately 200 assistant U.S. attorneys. [4]
The jurisdiction of the Southern District of Texas is divided as follows:
In 1857, congress created the Eastern and Western District of Texas. Texas continued to grow, and in 1879, congress formed the Northern District. As the railroads continued to expand and fuel the Texas economy, congress created the Southern District on July 1, 1902. [5]
Corpus Christi International Airport is 6 miles west of Corpus Christi, in Nueces County, Texas. It opened in 1960, replacing Cliff Maus airport at 27.767°N 97.44°W, where the Lozano Golf Center is now located.
South Texas is a geographic and cultural region of the U.S. state of Texas that lies roughly south of—and includes—San Antonio. The southern and western boundary is the Rio Grande, and to the east it is the Gulf of Mexico. The population of this region is more than 5 million according to the 2024 census estimates. The southern portion of this region is often referred to as the Rio Grande Valley. The eastern portion along the Gulf of Mexico is also referred to as the Coastal Bend.
The United States District Court for the Western District of Texas is a federal district court. The court convenes in San Antonio with divisions in Austin, Del Rio, El Paso, Midland, Pecos, and Waco. It has jurisdiction in over 50 Trans-Pecos, Permian Basin, and Hill Country counties of the U.S. state of Texas. This district covers over 92,000 square miles (240,000 km2) and seven divisions.
The 2004 Christmas Eve United States winter storm was a rare weather event that took place in Louisiana and Texas in the United States on December 24, 2004, before the storm moved northeast to affect the coastal sections of the Mid-Atlantic states and New England in the succeeding few days. This was a different storm from the historic event that struck the Midwest and southern Canada around December 23 from another cyclone which preceded this storm. The event involved a thin band of snowfall with unusually cold temperatures for the middle Texas coast, and caused dozens of varied weather records to be shattered. It was the most significant snow for the Texas Gulf Coast, and deep South Texas, since February 1895.
The Archdiocese of Galveston–Houston is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction—an archdiocese—of the Catholic Church in the United States. The archdiocese covers a portion of Southeast Texas, and is the metropolitan see of the ecclesiastical province covering east-Texas. The archdiocese was erected in 2004, having been a diocese since 1959 and the "Diocese of Galveston" since 1847. It is the second metropolitan see in Texas after the Archdiocese of San Antonio.
The Texas Mexican Railway was a short line railroad in the U.S. state of Texas operating between Corpus Christi and the Texas Mexican Railway International Bridge in Laredo, Texas. It is often referred to as the Tex Mex, or Tex Mex Railway.
The United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas is the federal district court with jurisdiction over the southeastern part of Texas. The court's headquarters is in Houston, Texas, and has six additional locations in the district.
Robert Alton "Bob" Gammage was a Texas politician, having served as a Democrat in the Texas House of Representatives, the Texas State Senate, and the United States House of Representatives.
The Diocese of Brownsville is a Latin Church diocese in southeastern Texas in the United States.
The Diocese of Corpus Christi is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in southern Texas in the United States.
The 1916 Texas hurricane was an intense and quick-moving tropical cyclone that caused widespread damage in Jamaica and South Texas in August 1916. A Category 4 hurricane upon landfall in Texas, it was the strongest tropical cyclone to strike the United States in three decades. Throughout its eight-day trek across the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico, the hurricane caused 37 fatalities and inflicted $11.8 million in damage.
The Texas Courts of Appeals are part of the Texas judicial system. In Texas, all cases appealed from district and county courts, criminal and civil, go to one of the fourteen intermediate courts of appeals, with one exception: death penalty cases. The latter are taken directly to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the court of last resort for criminal matters in the State of Texas. The highest court for civil and juvenile matters is the Texas Supreme Court. While the Supreme Court (SCOTX) and the Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) each have nine members per the Texas Constitution, the sizes of the intermediate courts of appeals are set by statute and vary greatly, depending on historical case filings and so that the justices on each court can timely adjudicate the volume of cases regularly before them. The total number of intermediate appellate court seats currently stands at 80, ranging from three, four, six, seven, nine, and thirteen (Dallas) per court.
James Anthony Tamayo is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He has been serving as bishop of the Diocese of Laredo in Texas since 2000. He previously served as an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Galveston-Houston in Texas from 1993 to 2000.
The Laredo National Bank (LNB) was a Texas bank founded in 1892 headquartered in Laredo, Texas which was bought by Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria. LNB had been a component in the development of business and industry along the United States-Mexico border and South Texas. The Laredo National Bank had grown to approximately $3.5 billion in assets and was the fifth largest independent bank in Texas. Headquartered in Laredo, Texas, LNB had branches in Austin, Brownsville, Corpus Christi, Dallas, Del Rio, Eagle Pass, Harlingen, Houston, McAllen, San Antonio, San Marcos, and Weslaco. Laredo National Bank owned South Texas National Bank. Laredo National Bank's branches and headquarters names have been changed to Compass Bank on November 14, 2008 due to a merger between Laredo National Bank Compass and BBVA. BBVA Compass plans on cutting 170 jobs and eliminating the Laredo National Bank headquarters.
Houston Air Route Traffic Control Center (ZHU) is located at George Bush Intercontinental Airport at 16600 JFK Boulevard, Houston, Texas, United States 77032. The Houston ARTCC is one of 22 Air Route Traffic Control Centers in the United States. Houston Center is the 9th busiest ARTCC in the United States.
The Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail is a state-designated system of trails, bird sanctuaries, and nature preserves along the entire length of the Texas Gulf Coast in the United States. As the state of Texas hosts more bird species than any other state in the U.S. the trail system offers some of the most unusual opportunities for bird-watching in the world. The "trail" is actually 43 separate hiking and driving trails that include 308 birding sites. The sites themselves feature a variety of viewing opportunities with boardwalks, observation decks, and other amenities. The trails boast more than 450 bird species. The trail system is managed by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department as part of the Great Texas Wildlife Trails which also include the Heart of Texas Wildlife Trail, the Panhandle Plains Wildlife Trail, and the Prairies and Pineywoods Wildlife Trail.
The 2018 general election was held in the U.S. state of Texas on November 6, 2018. All of Texas's executive officers were up for election as well as a United States Senate seat, and all of Texas's thirty-six seats in the United States House of Representatives. The Republican and Democratic Parties nominated their candidates by primaries held March 6, 2018. Convention Parties nominated their candidates at a series of conventions. County Conventions held March 17, 2018, District Conventions held March 24, 2018, and a State Convention held April 14, 2018. At the present time there is only one Convention Party in Texas, that is the Libertarian Party. Other parties may seek to achieve ballot access.