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It also highlights his grounded personal life, including faith, family, and weekend rural routines.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/hon-charles-r-butler-jr-profile/139638/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/hon-charles-r-butler-jr-profile/139638.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"Anda","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-09-19","2026-08-24",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",8,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"How did Charles R. Butler Jr. become a federal judge?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"He ultimately became a U.S. district judge for the Southern District of Alabama in November 1988 after a legal career spanning defense work, district attorney service, and private practice.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"What is Judge Butler’s approach to making decisions?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"He studies difficult issues carefully, discusses matters with law clerks, seeks fairness and equity, and aims to produce the best ruling quickly before moving on.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"What personal values and interests does the profile highlight?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"The profile emphasizes his relationships with God and family, along with hobbies such as enjoying desk calendars, appreciating office snacks, chopping wood, rebuilding, and hunting with his sons.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},139638,1787559803,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,92,96,101,106,111,114,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":89,"show_sort_weight":90,"slug":91},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":93,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":97,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":102,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":103,"show_sort_weight":104,"slug":105},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":107,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":108,"show_sort_weight":109,"slug":110},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":55,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},30,"research-report",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":97,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":131},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":55,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":26,"language":139,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":80,"read_time":97},962075006959,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/e0002397efbe92a78e?_k=1776741047341049297","Published in October 1999  \nHon. Charles R. Butler Jr.  \nBy  \nChristopher L. Ekman  \nIt was never the ambition of Judge Charles R. [Butler Jr. to](Butler Jr. to) become a federal judge. “I had never seriously thought about it,” Judge Butler remembers now with a chuckle. Nevertheless, after careful consideration, he ultimately became a  \nU.S. district judge for the Southern District of Alabama in November 1988. Nearly 11 years later, it is clear that now-Chief District Judge Butler has found his niche.  \nJudge Butler’s circuitous legal career on the opposite side of the bench rendered him ideally suited for his current occupation.  \nUpon graduating from the University of Alabama Law School in 1966, he worked at his father’s law firm in Mobile for three years. As a junior associate, he was appointed to represent and successfully defended a man charged with rape. This deeply moving experience, coupled with his zest for jury work, led Judge Butler to become an assistant public defender in the Mobile District Defender Agency, Mobile’s first state-court public-defender system, in 1969. He held this position for two years, taking a particularly active interest in constitutional issues. “I felt good about defending people,” he recalls.  \nAfter witnessing first-hand the mismanagement and inefficiency that plagued Mobile’s district attorney’s office, Judge Butler opted to run for district attorney in 1970. Elected by a landslide margin, he became [D.A. at](D.A. at)[the ripe age of 30](the ripe age of 30) . For three years,  \nJudge Butler enjoyed this work. Eventually, however, he realized that it was not in his nature to be, as he puts it, “prosecuting, prosecuting all the time.”  \nEschewing a re-election opportunity, Judge Butler left the D.A.’s office in 1975. He went into private practice, hanging out a shingle with a former assistant district attorney. The fledgling firm’s first client was “ashrimper from Bayou LaBatre who came in with $150. To us, it seemed like $150,000,”laughs Judge Butler. For the next 13 years, he developed a highly diverse civil practice running the gamut from estate planning and  \ndivorce matters to general commercial litigation, title work, and oil and gas litigation.  \nUpon his appointment to the federal bench in 1988, Judge Butler harbored no preconceived notions or ideals about his new job. At the swearing-in ceremony in his stately antique courtroom, Judge Butler recalls, he felt a sudden, overwhelming sense of belonging. This epiphany has been borne out by his subsequent experiences . “I’ve been on all four corners of the mat, and now I’m in the center,” he reflects. “I feel like my legal abilities are best used by my doing this .” His nearly 11 years as a federal judge have done nothing to dim his genuine enthusiasm for presiding over trials and hearings. “I love the arena of trial,” marvels Judge Butler.  \nJ  \nu d  \ng  \ne  \ns  \nP  \nr  \no f  \ni l  \ne  \nSometimes he will inquire about his court reporter’s work load, then quip,“Do you need another trial? I’ll try to get you one .”  \nBoth on the bench and in his private life, Judge Butler strives for simplicity. His judicial philosophy boils down to nothing more than being fair and patiently listening to both sides of an argument. In practice, of course, fairness is not always that easy. Judge Butler has a keen respect for the awesome power wielded by a federal judge. He neither shuns nor embraces that power. When called upon to make a difficult decision, Judge Butler studies the issue carefully. He often engages his law clerks in spirited discussions around the small wooden table in his chambers, probing the whys, wherefores, and repercussions of potential outcomes. Judge Butler ardently struggles to do the right thing, both from a technical legal standpoint and from the perspective of fairness and equity. As a civil attorney with years of experience in the judge’s courtroom points out, Judge Butler “tempers his approach to decisions with a full dose of ","cbCaiu66twdKGOod","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiu66twdKGOod","pdf",279860,"English","# Profile\n## Career path\n## Courtroom philosophy\n## Personal life","[{\"question\":\"How did Charles R. Butler Jr. become a federal judge?\",\"answer\":\"He ultimately became a U.S. district judge for the Southern District of Alabama in November 1988 after a legal career spanning defense work, district attorney service, and private practice.\"},{\"question\":\"What is Judge Butler’s approach to making decisions?\",\"answer\":\"He studies difficult issues carefully, discusses matters with law clerks, seeks fairness and equity, and aims to produce the best ruling quickly before moving on.\"},{\"question\":\"What personal values and interests does the profile highlight?\",\"answer\":\"The profile emphasizes his relationships with God and family, along with hobbies such as enjoying desk calendars, appreciating office snacks, chopping wood, rebuilding, and hunting with his sons.\"}]","Hon. Charles R. Butler Jr. - Profile | PDF"]