Paul B. Higginbotham (born October 14, 1954) is a retired judge of the Wisconsin Court of Appeals. He was the first African American to serve on the court. He previously served nine years as a Wisconsin circuit court judge in

Dane County, Wisconsin Dane County is a county in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census, the population was 561,504, making it the second-most populous county in Wisconsin. The county seat is Madison, which is also the state capital. Dane County is the ...

Biography

Higginbotham was born on October 14, 1954, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father was a civil rights activist and marched with Martin Luther King Jr., during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the University of Wisconsin Law School and is a resident of Fitchburg, Wisconsin. Though the judicial offices held were officially non-partisan, he is a Democrat.

Career

From 1985 to 1986, Higginbotham was an attorney with the Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was later a member of the faculty of the University of Wisconsin Law School. From 1992 to 1993, he served as City of Madison, Wisconsin Municipal Judge. He was the a Wisconsin Circuit Court Judge from 1994 until joining the Court of Appeals in 2003. That year he ran for election to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, but was defeated in the February primary election with the seat ultimately going to

Patience D. Roggensack Patience Drake "Pat" Roggensack (born July 7, 1940) is an Americans, American attorney and jurist. She is a justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, serving since 2003, and previously served as the 26th chief justice of the court from 2015 through ...

. Judge Roggensack's elevation created a vacancy on the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, and Governor Jim Doyle appointed Judge Higginbotham to the empty seat. Judge Higginbotham won re-election without opposition in 2005 and 2011. In May 2016, Higginbotham announced that he would not seek re-election to the Wisconsin Court of Appeals in the 2017 Wisconsin Spring Election.

Redistricting commission

After a 2011

redistricting Redistribution (re-districting in the United States and in the Philippines) is the process by which electoral districts are added, removed, or otherwise changed. Redistribution is a form of boundary delimitation that changes electoral dist ...

law, passed by a partisan Republican legislature and signed by a Republican governor, Wisconsin became one of the worst

gerrymandered In representative democracies, gerrymandering (, originally ) is the political manipulation of electoral district boundaries with the intent to create undue advantage for a party, group, or socioeconomic class within the constituency. The m ...

states in the country. In July 2020,

Wisconsin Governor The governor of Wisconsin is the head of government of Wisconsin and the commander-in-chief of the state's Wisconsin Army National Guard, army and Wisconsin Air National Guard, air forces. The governor has a duty to enforce state laws, and the ...

Tony Evers announced the creation of a redistricting commission in an effort to create a

nonpartisan Nonpartisanism is a lack of affiliation with, and a lack of bias towards, a political party. While an Oxford English Dictionary definition of ''partisan'' includes adherents of a party, cause, person, etc., in most cases, nonpartisan refers sp ...

alternative to the contentious process that had resulted in years of legal challenges and disputes. Evers appointed Judge Higginbotham, along with retired judges

Janine P. Geske Janine P. Geske (born May 12, 1949) is an American jurist and law professor who served as a justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court from 1993 to 1998 and as interim Milwaukee County Executive in 2002.

and Joseph Troy, as a panel to select the members of the proposed redistricting commission.

Electoral history

Wisconsin Circuit Court (1994, 2000)

, colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;", General Election, April 5, 1994 , colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;", General Election, April 4, 2000

Wisconsin Supreme Court (2003)

, colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;", Primary Election, February 18, 2003 , colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;", General Election, April 1, 2003

Wisconsin Court of Appeals (2005, 2011)

, colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;", General Election, April 5, 2005 , colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;", General Election, April 5, 2011

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Higginbotham, Paul Lawyers from Philadelphia People from Fitchburg, Wisconsin Wisconsin Court of Appeals judges Wisconsin circuit court judges Wisconsin Democrats University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni University of Wisconsin Law School alumni University of Wisconsin Law School faculty 1954 births Living people