Patrick Errol Higginbotham (born December 16, 1938) is an American judge and lawyer who serves as a
Senior United States circuit judge of the
United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Background and education
Judge Higginbotham was born in
McCalla,
Alabama to George and Ann Higginbotham (née Tumlin). The youngest of three, Higginbotham showed academic promise early in life.
Higginbotham received a
Bachelor of Arts degree from the
University of Alabama in 1960, attending on a
tennis scholarship offered to him by then-Athletic-Director
Paul "Bear" Bryant and serving as the team captain. He finished college and law school in just five years and received in 1961 a
Bachelor of Laws from the
University of Alabama School of Law at
Tuscaloosa, where he also met Elizabeth, his eventual wife of 52 years.
Career
He was in the
United States Air Force,
JAG Corps
The Judge Advocate General's Corps, also known as JAG or JAG Corps, is the military justice branch or specialty of the United States Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marine Corps and Navy. Officers serving in the JAG Corps are typically called judg ...
from 1961 to 1964. He then joined Coke & Coke in
Dallas,
Texas from 1964 to 1975, where he primarily worked in antitrust litigation. He was an adjunct professor of constitutional law at the
Southern Methodist University School of Law in 1976.
Federal judicial service
District court
Higginbotham was nominated by President
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. ( ; born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was an American politician who served as the 38th president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. He was the only president never to have been elected ...
on December 2, 1975, to a seat on the
vacated by Judge
Sarah T. Hughes. He was confirmed by the
United States Senate on December 12, 1975, and received commission the same day. At the time he was appointed to the District Court, he was the youngest sitting judge in the country.
His service was terminated on August 3, 1982, due to elevation to the Fifth Circuit.
He was succeeded by Judge
Joe Fish.
Appellate court
Higginbotham was nominated by President
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
on July 1, 1982, to a seat on the
United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit vacated by Judge
Reynaldo Guerra Garza
Reynaldo Guerra Garza (July 7, 1915 – September 14, 2004) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He was the first Mexican-American appointed to a federal court when he was appointed as a U ...
. He was unanimously confirmed by the Senate on July 27, 1982, and received commission on July 30, 1982. In 2005, he moved his chambers from
Dallas,
Texas to
Austin
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...
, Texas. He assumed
senior status on August 28, 2006.
Supreme Court consideration
In 1986, when the nomination of
Robert Bork to the
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
was flailing, Higginbotham was widely considered the leading replacement candidate. After Senators
Lloyd Bentsen
Lloyd Millard Bentsen Jr. (February 11, 1921 – May 23, 2006) was an American politician who was a four-term United States Senator (1971–1993) from Texas and the Democratic Party nominee for vice president in 1988 on the Michael Dukakis ti ...
and
Dennis DeConcini
Dennis Webster DeConcini (; born May 8, 1937) is an American lawyer, philanthropist, politician and former Democratic U.S. Senator from Arizona. The son of former Arizona Supreme Court Judge Evo Anton DeConcini, he represented Arizona in the Unit ...
came out in support of his nomination, the Reagan administration, unwilling to allow the senators to both prevent the appointment of Bork and dictate the next nominee, declined to nominate Higginbotham. The nomination eventually went to Justice
Anthony Kennedy.
Other service
For many years, Higginbotham was a faculty member at the
Federal Judicial Center
The Federal Judicial Center is the education and research agency of the United States federal courts. It was established by in 1967, at the recommendation of the Judicial Conference of the United States.
According to , the main areas of respo ...
and, as an appointee of Chief Justice
William Rehnquist, the chairman of the
Advisory Committee on Civil Rules. He served as president of the
American Inns of Court Foundation
American Inns of Court (AIC) are designed to improve the skills, professionalism and ethics of the bench and bar. An American Inn of Court is an amalgam of judges, lawyers, and in some cases, law professors and law students. Each Inn meets approx ...
, and in 1996 the Dallas chapter of that organization renamed itself after him. He has been a leading proponent and former chairman of
The Center for American and International Law, a Dallas-based organization which aims to train foreign and domestic lawyers and police officers, a Fellow of the
American Bar Association, chairman of its Appellate Judges Conference, member of the Board of Editors of the ''
ABA Journal'', and advisor to the National Center for State Courts on its study of habeas corpus. He is also a lifetime member of the
American Law Institute
The American Law Institute (ALI) is a research and advocacy group of judges, lawyers, and legal scholars established in 1923 to promote the clarification and simplification of United States common law and its adaptation to changing social needs. ...
and a member of the Board of Overseers, Institute of Civil Justice, RAND Corporation.
Speeches and writings
Higginbotham has published a number of articles in law reviews and newspapers. He is also a frequent speaker on various legal topics, particularly the death penalty and the decline of jury trials, having lectured at places including the Universities of
Alabama,
Chicago,
St. Mary's,
Texas,
Texas Tech,
Columbia
Columbia may refer to:
* Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America
Places North America Natural features
* Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region in ...
,
Duke, and
Penn, as well as
Case Western
Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a private research university in Cleveland, Ohio. Case Western Reserve was established in 1967, when Western Reserve University, founded in 1826 and named for its location in the Connecticut Western Reser ...
,
Northwestern,
Utah,
Loyola,
Hofstra, the
National Science Foundation, The
American College of Trial Lawyers and the National Institute of Trial Advocacy.
Personal life and present
Personal life
Higginbotham married Elizabeth O'Neal in August 1961.
They were married until her death from
Alzheimer's
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As t ...
disease on June 10, 2017, at the age of 78. They had two daughters, Anne Elizabeth and Patricia Lynn, and 6 grandchildren. Higginbotham lost his older sister, Jean, to
ALS
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most com ...
in 2002. His older brother, George, who graduated from law school in the same class as Higginbotham, died three weeks after Higginbotham's wife in 2017.
Notable opinions
*In ''In re LTV Securities Litigation'', 88 F.R.D. 134 (N.D. Tex. 1980), Higginbotham formulated one of the earliest versions of the "
fraud on the market" theory of loss causation, using language later quoted by the Supreme Court when it adopted the theory, ''see'' ''Basic, Inc. v. Levinson'', 485 U.S. 224, 244 (1988).
*In ''Schultea v. Wood'', 47 F.3d 1427 (5th Cir. 1995) (en banc), Higginbotham allowed under Rule 7 notice pleading in potential
qualified immunity cases but required, in reply to an allegation of qualified immunity, more detailed pleading, a tack later approved by the Supreme Court.
*In ''Flores v. City of Boerne'', 73 F.3d 1352 (5th Cir. 1996), Higginbotham upheld the
Religious Freedom Restoration Act against the claim that the Act exceeded Congress's powers under the
Fourteenth Amendment. The Supreme Court later reversed the decision.
*In ''Doe v. Beaumont Independent School District'', 240 F.3d 462 (5th Cir. 2001) (en banc), Higginbotham found that public school students and their parents had standing to challenge district's "Clergy in Schools" volunteer counseling program and that facts issues required reversal of summary judgment to defendants.
*In ''
Van Orden v. Perry
''Van Orden v. Perry'', 545 U.S. 677 (2005), was a United States Supreme Court case involving whether a display of the Ten Commandments on a monument given to the government at the Texas State Capitol in Austin violated the Establishment Clause ...
'', 351 F.3d 173 (5th Cir. 2003), Higginbotham upheld against an Establishment Clause challenge a
Ten Commandments display on the
Texas State Capitol, concluding that its secular history and purpose rendered it constitutional. The Supreme Court later affirmed.
*Between 2000 and 2006, Higginbotham, sitting as the Circuit Judge along with two district judges in a
Voting Rights Act three-judge panel, twice changed Texas's Congressional districts. His later effort, which struck a balance between competing interests while hewing closely to the Texas legislature's intent, was widely hailed.
[Burka, Paul, Senior Executive Editor of Texas Monthly (2006)]
Exit Lines
Retrieved 2007-01-01.
*In ''
June Medical Services v. Russo
''June Medical Services, LLC v. Russo'', 591 U.S. 1101 (2020), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court ruled that a Louisiana state law placing hospital-admission requirements on abortion clinics doctors was unconstitutional. T ...
'', 30 F.3d 397 (5th Cir. 2018), Higginbotham dissented in a case upholding Louisiana's Act 620, which requires physicians performing abortions to have active admitting privileges at a hospital within thirty miles of a clinic. Higginbotham criticized the majority for reviewing the statute ''de novo'', as a district court would, saying, "Appellate judges are not the triers of fact. It is apparent that when abortion comes on stage it shadows the role of settled judicial rules."
Awards and recognition
* The 100 Most Powerful People For the 80's (Next Magazine) - 1981
*Daniel J. Meador Outstanding Alumnus Award (
University of Alabama) - 1986
*Samuel E. Gates Litigation Award (
American College of Trial Lawyers) - 1997
*
A. Sherman Christensen Award (
American Inns of Court
American Inns of Court (AIC) are designed to improve the skills, professionalism and ethics of the bench and bar. An American Inn of Court is an amalgam of judges, lawyers, and in some cases, law professors and law students. Each Inn meets approx ...
) - 2002
* Jurist of the Year Award (Texas Chapters of the American Board of Trial Advocates) - 2006
*
Lewis F. Powell, Jr.
Lewis Franklin Powell Jr. (September 19, 1907 – August 25, 1998) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1972 to 1987.
Born in Suffolk, Virginia, he gradua ...
Award for Professionalism and Ethics at a Celebration of Excellence (presented by
Justice Alito in the
United States Supreme Court) - 2008
* Chief Justice
John Marshall
John Marshall (September 24, 1755July 6, 1835) was an American politician and lawyer who served as the fourth Chief Justice of the United States from 1801 until his death in 1835. He remains the longest-serving chief justice and fourth-longes ...
Award for Lifetime achievement from the
JAG Association - 2010
* St. Thomas More Award (
St. Mary's School of Law, San Antonio, Texas) - 2011
* Chief Justice
Jack Pope
Andrew Jackson Pope Jr., known as Jack Pope (April 18, 1913 – February 25, 2017), was an American judge, attorney, author and legal scholar who served as chief justice of the Supreme Court of Texas.
Pope previously held the record for the ...
Professionalism and Integrity Award (Texas Center for Legal Ethics) - 2013
See also
*
George H. W. Bush Supreme Court candidates
*
List of United States federal judges by longevity of service
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Higginbotham, Patrick Errol
1938 births
20th-century American judges
Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
Judges of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas
Living people
Texas Tech University faculty
United States court of appeals judges appointed by Ronald Reagan
United States district court judges appointed by Gerald Ford
University of Alabama alumni
Southern Methodist University faculty
People from McCalla, Alabama
People from Blanco, Texas
Military personnel from Alabama