Arkansas
Shepherd confirmed as federal judge in Arkansas’ Western District – Talk Business & Politics
John Thomas Shepherd of El Dorado has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate to be a U.S. District judge in the Western District of Arkansas, according to the offices of U.S. Sens. John Boozman and Tom Cotton, R-Ark.
Shepherd is a native of El Dorado and graduate of Rice University and the University of Arkansas School of Law in Fayetteville, where he was managing editor of the Arkansas Law Review.
He was a partner at Shepherd & Shepherd in El Dorado and also served as a prosecuting attorney, and later judge, for the Arkansas Circuit Court’s 13th Judicial District. He is a member of the Federalist Society, according to a press release from Cotton’s office.
His brother, Matthew Shepherd, is a partner in the El Dorado law firm and is a former speaker of the Arkansas House of Representatives. Their father is Federal Judge Bobby Shepherd who sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
“I am pleased to congratulate John Thomas Shepherd on his confirmation and am confident he will serve with the same integrity, professionalism and sound judgment he has demonstrated throughout his career,” noted a statement from Boozman’s. “We are grateful for his deep commitment to public service and the rule of law.”
Shepherd succeeds U.S. District Court Judge Susan Hickey who has been on the bench since October 2011. She was chief judge of the district between 2019 and 2025. The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas includes 34 counties stretching from Texarkana and El Dorado to Fayetteville and Fort Smith.
Shepherd is the second Western District judge to be confirmed so far in 2026. David Clay Fowlkes, the former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas, was confirmed in early February to be a federal judge in the Western District of Arkansas. He succeeded U.S. District Court Judge P.K. Holmes III, and will be in the Fort Smith office.
Other judges now in the Western District are Chief Judge Timothy Brooks (Fayetteville bench), Magistrate Judge Christy Comstock (Fayetteville), Magistrate Judge Mark Ford (Fort Smith), and Magistrate Judge Spencer Singleton (El Dorado).