Patrick Errol Higginbotham

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American judge (born 1938)

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

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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 grew up in a poor family in rural Alabama. After his father and mother separated, he followed his mother to Bessemer, Alabama . With money scarce, the family had to find alternative methods to finance college. Higginbotham's brother did this by joining the United States Navy to get a GI Bill . Patrick Higginbotham himself, however, soon became interested in tennis from the ages of 11 or 12, a result of his mother bringing him along to Montevallo, Alabama while attending its university for women. Trading a knife for a racket, he would play through high school, becoming the top player in the 18 and under rankings in the state, earning him a scholarship.

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

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He was in the United States Air Force , JAG Corps from 1961 to 1964, an experience that Higginbotham would consider to be a turning point in his life. It was also during this time, where he would marry his wife. 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

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District court

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Higginbotham was nominated by President Gerald Ford on December 2, 1975, to a seat on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas 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

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Higginbotham was nominated by President Ronald Reagan on July 1, 1982, to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit vacated by Judge Reynaldo Guerra Garza . 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 , Texas. He assumed senior status on August 28, 2006.

Supreme Court consideration

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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 Lloyd Bentsen and Dennis DeConcini 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 Ninth Circuit Judge Anthony Kennedy .

Other service

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For many years, Higginbotham was a faculty member at the Federal Judicial Center 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 , 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 th

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