Southern District of Texas / Appointed 1979 / Served to 1998

Hugh Gibson

Judge, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas

Appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1979 and confirmed by voice vote, Hugh Gibson was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. He earned a law degree from Baylor University School of Law in 1948. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Lived
1918–1998
Appointed by
Jimmy Carter, 1979
Confirmed
by voice vote
Education
Rice Institute (now Rice) 1940 · Baylor Law 1948
Succeeded by
Samuel B. Kent

Federal judicial service

YearCourtAppointed byVote
1979Southern District of Texas
succeeded Finis E. Cowan
Carter (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

Caseload & case types

In our data, Gibson was assigned 537 district-court cases (1978–1997). Median time from filing to termination: 869 days across 537 closed cases.

Personal-injury torts43%
Prisoner & habeas25%
Contract12%
Civil rights7%
Labor & ERISA3%
Other federal statutes2%
Other7%

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, Gibson authored 64 published opinions for the court (1980–1996). Most cited: Albonetti v. GAF Corporation-Chemical Group (70 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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

Showing the 15 most-cited of 64 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 Hugh Gibson?
President Jimmy Carter appointed Hugh Gibson to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas in 1979.
Was Hugh Gibson appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
Hugh Gibson was appointed by President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Hugh Gibson's confirmation vote?
Hugh Gibson was confirmed by voice vote on October 4, 1979. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court was Hugh Gibson on?
Hugh Gibson was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

Sources

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

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

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18 years on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).