Howard C. Bratton
Appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 and confirmed by voice vote, Howard C. Bratton was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico. He earned a law degree from Yale Law School in 1947. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Lived
- 1922–2002
- Appointed by
- Lyndon B. Johnson, 1964
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- University of New Mexico 1941 · Yale Law School 1947
- Succeeded
- Waldo Henry Rogers
- Succeeded by
- James Aubrey Parker
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1964 | District of New Mexico succeeded Waldo Henry Rogers | L.B. Johnson (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
| University of New Mexico | B.A. | 1941 |
| Yale Law School | LL.B. | 1947 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Bratton was assigned 770 district-court cases (1976–1999). Median time from filing to termination: 288 days across 770 closed cases.
Case assignment is from CourtListener’s PACER-derived docket records: a partial sample, not a complete caseload, reflecting the judge last assigned each case. How we count.
In our data, Bratton authored 54 published opinions for the court (1948–2011). Most cited: Shaw v. Dawson (In Re Shaw) (35 citations).
A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included. Counts and rankings are objective and recomputable: how we count. We describe the record, not the judge.
Recent & notable rulings
| Year | Case | Citation | Cited |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | Shaw v. Dawson (In Re Shaw) | 48 B.R. 857 | 35 |
| 1973 | Burnett v. Trans World Airlines, Inc. | 368 F. Supp. 1152 | 34 |
| 1976 | Lewis v. Weinberger | 415 F. Supp. 652 | 30 |
| 1977 | Warren v. Bokum Resources Corp. | 433 F. Supp. 1360 | 24 |
| 1985 | Jordache Enterprises, Inc. v. Hogg Wyld, Ltd. | 625 F. Supp. 48 | 22 |
| 1971 | Loncassion v. Leekity | 334 F. Supp. 370 | 22 |
| 1982 | Carlton v. Internal Revenue Service (In Re Carlton) | 19 B.R. 73 | 19 |
| 1981 | UNC Resources, Inc. v. Benally | 514 F. Supp. 358 | 18 |
| 1984 | Pepper v. Alexander | 599 F. Supp. 523 | 17 |
| 1974 | Norvell v. Sangre De Cristo Development Company, Inc. | 372 F. Supp. 348 | 15 |
| 1975 | Baca v. Butz | 394 F. Supp. 888 | 14 |
| 1970 | McLeod v. College of Artesia | 312 F. Supp. 498 | 14 |
| 1974 | Horn v. O'Cheskey | 378 F. Supp. 1280 | 13 |
| 1974 | Baca v. Butz | 376 F. Supp. 1005 | 13 |
| 1992 | Howell v. United States Army Corps of Engineers | 794 F. Supp. 1072 | 12 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 54 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 Howard C. Bratton?
- President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Howard C. Bratton to the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico in 1964.
- Was Howard C. Bratton appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- Howard C. Bratton was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was Howard C. Bratton's confirmation vote?
- Howard C. Bratton was confirmed by voice vote on March 14, 1964. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court was Howard C. Bratton on?
- Howard C. Bratton was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico.
Sources
Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.
- FJC Biographical Directory
- Wikidata
- Portrait: Administrative Office of the United States Courts (Public domain), via Wikimedia Commons
- CourtListener bulk data (Free Law Project): authored opinions & citation counts
How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources
See something wrong? Report an error. Fixes are logged in the corrections log.
38 years on the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).