He was renominated to the Fourth Circuit by President Barack Obama on April 2, 2009, and he was confirmed by the Senate on November 9, 2009.

As an early participant in the Ford Foundation's A Better Chance (ABC) program, Davis attended Phillips Andover Academy for high school, and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in American history from the University of Pennsylvania in 1971.

From 1980 until 1981, Davis worked as an appellate attorney for the United States Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division.

[1][3] On May 4, 1995, President Bill Clinton nominated Davis to be a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland to a seat vacated by Judge Walter Evan Black Jr., who assumed senior status on October 21, 1994.The United States Senate confirmed Davis by a voice vote on August 11, 1995.

On October 12, 2000, President Clinton nominated Davis to be a judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, to a seat vacated by Judge Francis Dominic Murnaghan Jr., who died on August 31, 2000.

On April 2, 2009, President Barack Obama renominated Davis to the same seat of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.