Diversity Jurisdiction: A Storied Past, a Flexible Future

Abstract

I am honored to be among the distinguished persons and jurists who have preceded me as lecturers honoring a great judge of the Fifth Circuit, Robert A. Ainsworth. Judge Ainsworth, whose remarkable career and life is celebrated in this lecture series, was born in Gulfport, Mississippi, in 1910.1 He graduated from Loyola University New Orleans School of Law in 1932, forty-two years before I received my diploma from this esteemed institution. Judge Ainsworth’s extraordinarily diverse legal career began in private practice. Thereafter, he was a lieutenant in the United States Navy during World War II, and in 1949, he went on to serve eleven years as a member of the Louisiana State Senate. During his tenure, he was elected president pro tempore from 1952 to 1956 and again from 1960 to 1961. He ended his career as a federal judge.