High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! James David Whittemore (born 1952) is an American judge presently serving in the Tampa division of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. He was previously a Florida state trial court judge, a federal public defender, and an attorney in private practice who won a criminal case before the U.S. Supreme Court. As a federal judge, Whittemore presided over a number of high profile cases, including a lawsuit against Major League Baseball to challenge its draft procedure, and the Terri Schiavo case, after the United States Congress had specifically given the Middle District of Florida jurisdiction to hear the seven year-long fight over whether the brain-damaged Schiavo should be taken off life support.