Patrick Higginbotham

Patrick Errol Higginbotham (born 1938 in McCalla, Alabama) is a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. In 2005, he moved his chambers from Dallas, Texas to Austin, Texas.

Background

Higginbotham attended the University of Alabama on a tennis scholarship. He received a B.A. degree in 1960 and an LL.B. degree in 1961. He served in the United States Air Force JAG Corps and practiced law in Dallas before being appointed to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas by President Gerald Ford in 1975. When appointed, he was the youngest sitting federal judge. In 1982, President Ronald Reagan appointed him to the Fifth Circuit.

In 1986, when the nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court of the United States was flailing, Higginbotham was widely considered the leading replacement candidate. After senators from the South 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.

For many years, Higginbotham was a faculty member at the Federal Judicial Center and, as an appointee of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, the chairman of the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules. He served as president of the American Inns of Court Foundation, 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 and a member of the Board of Overseers, Institute of Civil Justice, RAND Corporation.

Higginbotham has published a number of articles in law reviews and newspapers. [ See, e.g., "Two Judges' Persepctives on Trial by Jury", 12 Tex. Wesleyan L. Rev. 1201 (2006); "So Why Do We Call Them Trial Courts?", 55 S.M.U. L. Rev. 1405 (2002); Foreword, 54 S.M.U. L. Rev. 1679 (2001); "Thoughts About Professor Resnick's Paper", 148 U. Pa. L. Rev. 2197 (2000); "A Note About a Colleague", 76 Tex. L. Rev. 905 (1998); "The Continuing Dialogue of Federalism", 45 U. Kan. L. Rev. 985 (1997); "Irving L. Goldberg Memorial", 73 Tex. L. Rev. 975 (1995); "Notes on" Teague, 66 S. Cal. L. Rev. 2433 (1993); "Juries and the Death Penalty", 41 Case W. L. Rev. 1047 (1991); "Reflections on Reform of Sec. 2254", 18 Hofstra L. Rev. 1005 (1990); "Text and Precedent in Constitutional Adjudication", 73 Cornell L. Rev. 411 (1988).] 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, Texas, Texas Tech, Columbia, Duke, and Penn, as well as Case Western, Northwestern, Utah, Loyola, Hofstra, the National Science Foundation, The American College of Trial Lawyers and the National Institute of Trial Advocacy.

Many of Higginbotham's clerks later clerked on the Supreme Court. His former clerks include Princeton University Provost Chris Eisgruber, University of Pennsylvania Law School Professor Stephanos Bibas, University of Michigan Law School Professor Kyle Logue, New York University School of Law Professor Roderick Hills, University of Texas School of Law Professor Henry Hu, George Washington University Law School Professor Michael Abramowicz, George Mason University School of Law Professor Nelson Lund, and Adam K. Mortara of Bartlit, Beck, Herman, Palenchar & Scott and the University of Chicago Law School.

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", 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). [http://www.texasmonthly.com/community/blog/paulburka/2006/08/exit-lines.php#links Exit Lines] . Retrieved 2007-01-01.]

Present

Higginbotham assumed senior status on August 28, 2006, but he currently maintains a full workload on the court in addition to teaching courses in Constitutional Law and Federal Courts at St. Mary's University School of Law in San Antonio, Texas. He has also taught at the University of Texas School of Law, the University of Alabama School of Law, the Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law, and the Texas Tech University School of Law. The University of Alabama School of Law maintains an endowed scholarship in his name. He is married to Elizabeth Higginbotham. The couple lives in Austin and on their ranch in Blanco, Texas. Higginbotham is particularly fond of his Tennessee Walking Horse Sunny.

Attribution

"Material on this page is taken from the website of the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Legal Policy. As a product of the United States government, this material is in the public domain."

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References

External links

* [http://www.fjc.gov/servlet/tGetInfo?jid=1040 Federal Judicial Center Profile]