He began his long judicial career in 1963 as a Probate Judge in Canyon County, and in 1965 became the youngest ever appointed to a district court in Idaho, at age 31.

[5][6] When Judge Marion Jones Callister of the U.S. District Court in Boise took senior status in 1989,[11] Lodge was recommended by Senator James A. McClure to fill the seat.

[1][6] In the spring of 1993, Lodge was the presiding judge in the trial of Randy Weaver and Kevin Harris, defendants in the previous August's Ruby Ridge standoff in northern Idaho.

[14][15][16][17] Five years later in 1998, Lodge was also the presiding judge in the case of Idaho v. Lon T. Horiuchi,[18] which involved the indictment of the FBI sniper who shot three people at Ruby Ridge, killing one.

On May 13, he ruled to disallow a defense witness to refer to a blood drive that Hussayen had run after September 11th to help the victims, nor that he had widely condemned the attacks.