Senior U.S. District Judge John T. Copenhaver Jr. Dies at 94

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Senior U.S. District Judge John T. Copenhaver Jr. died on May 13 2026 at age 94, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia confirmed in a statement released the same day.

Copenhaver, appointed to the bench in 1976 by President Gerald Ford, served as chief judge from 1980 to 1987 and took senior status in 1995. At the time of his death he maintained an active caseload in Charleston federal court. The Southern District of West Virginia has three authorized district judgeships; with Copenhaver’s passing the court now operates with two active judges and one other senior judge.

The death creates a judicial vacancy that the president must fill with Senate confirmation under Article III. Until a successor is confirmed, Chief Judge Thomas E. Johnston will reassign Copenhaver’s pending civil and criminal dockets according to the district’s case-management plan.

Senior judges in the Fourth Circuit typically carry a reduced caseload of 15 to 25 percent of an active judge’s docket; Copenhaver’s cases will now shift to the remaining judges or be stayed pending reassignment.

Downstream effects include delayed scheduling for the roughly 40 matters Copenhaver had under submission or set for hearing in the next 90 days. Parties in those cases must now file updated notices with the clerk’s office. The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts will also adjust future judicial workload statistics for the district, which handles more than 1,800 new criminal and civil filings annually.

A nomination to fill the seat would require FBI background investigation, American Bar Association evaluation, and Senate Judiciary Committee hearings before a confirmation vote.

Copenhaver was the longest-serving judge in the Southern District’s history. The Department of Justice statement, issued by U.S. Attorney William J. Ihlenfeld II, noted the judge’s decades of service without specifying cause of death or funeral arrangements.

This marks the second vacancy created by death on a Fourth Circuit district court this year; the prior instance led to a nomination submitted 47 days after the judge’s passing.