Peter Beer

Peter Beer (Law ’86) is one of six federal judges who successfully challenged Congress’s denial of cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) raises to the judiciary. In Beer vs. United States, the judges claimed that Congress violated the Constitution’s compensation clause and the Ethics Reform Act of 1989 by failing to honor promised judicial salary increases in five separate years. In 2012, the Federal Circuit ruled in favor of the judges, finding that Congress’s withholding of the COLA raises was illegal, and ordered the Court of Federal Claims to calculate the damages and additional compensation to which all federal judges, bankruptcy judges and U.S. magistrates are entitled. Nominated by President Carter in 1979, Judge Beer is an Article III federal judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Peter Beer (Law ’86 A/M) retired in December after 30 years as United States District Court Judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana.