Lewis Thornton Babcock
Appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 and confirmed by voice vote, Lewis Thornton Babcock is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado. He earned a law degree from University of Denver College of Law (now Sturm College of Law) in 1968. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Born
- 1943 · age 83
- Appointed by
- Ronald Reagan, 1988
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- University of Denver 1965 · University of Denver College of Law (now Sturm College of Law) 1968
- Succeeded
- John L. Kane Jr.
- Succeeded by
- Philip A. Brimmer
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | District of Colorado succeeded John L. Kane Jr. | Reagan (R) | 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 Denver | B.A. | 1965 |
| University of Denver College of Law (now Sturm College of Law) | J.D. | 1968 |
| University of Virginia School of Law | LL.M. | 1988 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Babcock was assigned 16,106 district-court cases (1973–2026). Median time from filing to termination: 121 days across 16,005 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.
On appeal
Of 636 of Babcock’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 596 were affirmed, 22 reversed or vacated, and 18 affirmed in part and reversed in part. This is a historical count of appellate outcomes for cases we could match, not a judgment of the judge, and not a complete record. How we count.
In our data, Babcock authored 466 published opinions for the court (1988–2011). Most cited: Golden Rule Insurance v. Lease (266 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | Golden Rule Insurance v. Lease | 755 F. Supp. 948 | 266 |
| 1992 | Hedstrom v. Sullivan | 783 F. Supp. 553 | 74 |
| 1991 | Hansel v. Public Service Co. of Colorado | 778 F. Supp. 1126 | 73 |
| 1989 | Alvarado Partners, L.P. v. Mehta | 723 F. Supp. 540 | 69 |
| 1993 | English Feedlot, Inc. v. Norden Laboratories, Inc. | 833 F. Supp. 1498 | 65 |
| 1991 | Cook v. Rockwell International Corp. | 755 F. Supp. 1468 | 65 |
| 1992 | Federal Deposit Ins. Corp. v. Isham | 782 F. Supp. 524 | 63 |
| 1996 | Bayles v. American Medical Response of Colorado, Inc. | 950 F. Supp. 1053 | 59 |
| 1994 | World Youth Day, Inc. v. Famous Artists Merchandising Exchange, Inc. | 866 F. Supp. 1297 | 56 |
| 1996 | Powell Products, Inc. v. Marks | 948 F. Supp. 1469 | 48 |
| 1990 | Short by Oosterhous v. Short | 730 F. Supp. 1037 | 42 |
| 1990 | Weiszmann v. Kirkland and Ellis | 732 F. Supp. 1540 | 36 |
| 1998 | Martinez v. Greene | 28 F. Supp. 2d 1275 | 35 |
| 2006 | Sender v. Mann | 423 F. Supp. 2d 1155 | 32 |
| 2001 | Castaldo v. Stone | 192 F. Supp. 2d 1124 | 31 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 466 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 Lewis Thornton Babcock?
- President Ronald Reagan appointed Lewis Thornton Babcock to the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado in 1988.
- Was Lewis Thornton Babcock appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- Lewis Thornton Babcock was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was Lewis Thornton Babcock's confirmation vote?
- Lewis Thornton Babcock was confirmed by voice vote on October 14, 1988. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court is Lewis Thornton Babcock on?
- Lewis Thornton Babcock is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado.
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.
37 years on the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).