Hayden Wilson Head Jr.

Hayden Wilson Head Jr. (born November 12, 1944) is a United States federal judge.

Born in Sherman, Texas, Head received a B.A. from the University of Texas in 1966 and an LL.B. from the University of Texas School of Law in 1968. He was in private practice in Corpus Christi, Texas from 1968 to 1969. He was in the United States Navy from 1969 to 1972. He was in private practice in Corpus Christi, Texas from 1972 to 1981.

Head is a federal judge on the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas. Head was nominated by President Ronald Reagan on September 17, 1981, to a seat vacated by Owen D. Cox. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on October 21, 1981, and received his commission on October 26, 1981. He served as Chief Judge from 2003-2009. He assumed senior status on November 13, 2009.

In 2014, he entered the news for vacating an order by federal magistrate Brian Owsley to unseal the records of government requests for electronic surveillance in connection with criminal investigations. As a result of his order, the surveillance, most of which are for investigations that have long been concluded, along with the government's legal justification for the surveillance, remains secret. The one-paragraph order offered no explanation for the decision and was itself filed under seal.^[1]

Sources

• Hayden Wilson Head Jr. at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.

References

1. Jennifer Valentino-DeVries, Sealed Court Files Obscure Rise in Electronic Surveillance, The Wall Street Journal, June 2, 2014