A mere five months after President Barack Obama nominated him, the full U.S. Senate approved the appointment of Gregg Costa on May 20. That makes him the president’s first Texas appointee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Costa, a former federal prosecutor who was part of a legal team responsible for sending Houston financier R. Allen Stanford to prison for 110 years in 2012, was appointed that same year as a U.S. District Court judge in the Southern District of Texas. Costa will hear his first oral argument as a Fifth Circuit judge on June 2 in New Orleans.
