Richard G. Kopf

Richard George Kopf (December 1, 1946 – January 17, 2025) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Nebraska.

Background Kopf received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Kearney State College in 1969, He received his Juris Doctor from the University of Nebraska College of Law in 1972.

Federal judicial service Kopf served as a United States magistrate judge of the United States District Court for the District of Nebraska from 1987 to 1992.

Controversial opinions Kopf received considerable press coverage for abortion-related decisions, particularly for his 474-page opinion striking down a ban on late-term abortions in Carhart, et al., v. Ashcroft. His decision included the apology "I apologize for the length of this opinion. I am well aware that appellate judges have plenty to do and that long-winded opinions from district judges are seldom helpful.... Nonetheless, I pity the poor appellate judge who has to slog through this thing. I am truly sorry."

In 2007 Kopf dismissed without prejudice a case over the use of the words "rape" and "sexual assault" in a rape trial in Lancaster County, Nebraska. Tory Bowen had filed a lawsuit against Judge Jeffre Cheuvront for violating her right to free speech in a rape trial; Kopf dismissed the suit because Bowen had not shown enough evidence to demonstrate her lawsuit was not frivolous. Cheuvront had barred the words "rape" and "sexual assault" from the trial, but allowed words such as "sexual intercourse" and "intercourse" to be used instead.

Awards and honors Kopf served as president and board chair of the historical society for the Eighth Circuit. He served as administrator of the Robert Van Pelt Inn of Court, a legal professional organization, until 2008; the organization gave Kopf its Warren Keith Urbom Mentor Award the same year.

Personal blog From 2013 to 2015, Kopf maintained a personal blog entitled Hercules and the Umpire: The Role of the Federal Trial Judge.

On August 8, 2013, Kopf published a blog, "Shon Hopwood and Kopf’s terrible sentencing instincts" relaying that he had given Hopwood a 12-year prison term for bank robbery, having then misjudged him as a "punk". Hopwood subsequently became a successful criminal attorney and a Georgetown University Law Center professor.

Kopf ended the blog after members of his courthouse staff indicated that it was an embarrassment to the court.