Ronnie L. White
Ronnie Lee White (born May 31, 1953) is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri and a former Missouri Supreme Court judge. Education and legal career White received an Associate of Arts degree from St. Louis Community College in 1977 and received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Saint Louis University in 1979. He earned a Juris Doctor from the University of Missouri–Kansas City in 1983. He worked as a public defender in St. Louis and an attorney in various other government offices and was elected as a Democratic member of the Missouri House of Representatives, where he served for six years. In 1993, he was appointed as a City Counselor for St. Louis City. In May 1994, Governor Mel Carnahan appointed him a judge for the Eastern District of the Missouri Court of Appeals. Carnahan appointed White to the Supreme Court of Missouri in October 1995. He served as the court's first African-American Chief Justice from 2003 to 2005. White retired from the court on July 6, 2007, and was succeeded by Judge Patricia Breckenridge. First nomination to federal district court In 1997, President Bill Clinton nominated White for