Third Circuit / Appointed 1977 / Served to 1993
Portrait of Aloyisus Leon Higginbotham Jr.

Aloyisus Leon Higginbotham Jr.

Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit

Appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1977 and confirmed by voice vote, Aloyisus Leon Higginbotham Jr. was a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He earned a law degree from Yale Law School in 1952. He previously served on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Opinions & record ↓ Sources ↓

Lived
1928–1998
Appointed by
Jimmy Carter, 1977
Confirmed
by voice vote
Education
Antioch College 1949 · Yale Law School 1952

Federal judicial service

YearCourtAppointed byVote
1964Eastern District of PennsylvaniaL.B. Johnson (D)Voice vote
1977Third CircuitCarter (D)Voice vote

Party letters show the appointing president’s party, not the judge’s own. A voice vote means the chamber approved aloud. No senator-by-senator tally is recorded.

Confirmation vote

Voice vote

The Senate approved this confirmation aloud, with no senator-by-senator tally recorded. Recorded roll-call votes begin in 1989.

Education

Judicial Record

In our data, Higginbotham authored 103 published opinions for the court (1964–1980). Most cited: Knuckles v. Prasse (66 citations).

Published, precedential opinions from the CourtListener corpus. Counts and rankings are objective and recomputable: how we count. We describe the record, not the judge.

Selected opinions

Showing the 15 most-cited of 103 authored opinions in our data. “Cited” is inbound citations across the CourtListener corpus. Case links open the ruling’s full text (CourtListener) or its page here; read the methodology and verify against the primary source.

Questions & answers

Who appointed Aloyisus Leon Higginbotham Jr.?
President Jimmy Carter appointed Aloyisus Leon Higginbotham Jr. to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in 1977.
Was Aloyisus Leon Higginbotham Jr. appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
Aloyisus Leon Higginbotham Jr. was appointed by President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Aloyisus Leon Higginbotham Jr.'s confirmation vote?
Aloyisus Leon Higginbotham Jr. was confirmed by voice vote on October 7, 1977. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court was Aloyisus Leon Higginbotham Jr. on?
Aloyisus Leon Higginbotham Jr. was a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Sources

Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.

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15 years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).