Hon. Amy St. Eve

Amy Joan St. Eve (born November 20, 1965) is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. She previously served as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Education and Career

Raised in Belleville, Illinois, St. Eve received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Cornell University in 1987. She then attended Cornell Law School, where she was an editor of the Cornell Law Review. She graduated in 1990 ranked first in her class with a Juris Doctor.

Following law school graduation, St. Eve was in private practice at Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York City from 1990 to 1994. She was an associate independent counsel at the Whitewater Independent Counsel’s Office in Little Rock, Arkansas from 1994 to 1996. From 1996 until 2001, St. Eve served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. She was a Senior Counsel for Abbott Laboratories, Abbott Park, Illinois, from 2001 until 2002, when she became a federal judge.

Federal Judicial Career

On March 21, 2002, St. Eve was nominated by President George W. Bush to a seat on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois vacated by George W. Lindberg. She was recommended for the post by United States Senator Peter Fitzgerald. She received her commission on August 2, 2002.

St. Eve was reportedly considered by the Trump administration for the position of Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation after the dismissal of James Comey, but ultimately did not receive the job as it went to Christopher A. Wray.

Her service on the district court terminated on May 23, 2018, upon elevation to the court of appeals.

On February 12, 2018, President Donald Trump announced his intent to nominate St. Eve to an undetermined seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. She received her judicial commission on May 23, 2018.

Notable Cases

• 1996, she successfully prosecuted former Arkansas Governor Jim Guy Tucker and Whitewater partners Jim and Susan McDougal for fraud.
• 2020, Illinois Republican Party v. Pritzker: On June 15, 2020, the Illinois Republican Party, together with three local Republican groups, filed suit against Governor J.B. Pritzker (D) in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. In their complaint, Republicans argued that their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights had been violated because, “unlike churches, political parties are barred from gathering in groups greater than 10 under the Governor’s Executive Order 2020-38.” Republican’s motion was ultimately denied.