Who appointed Shelby Highsmith?

President George H.W. Bush appointed Shelby Highsmith to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in 1991.

Was Shelby Highsmith appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?

Shelby Highsmith was appointed by President George H.W. Bush, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.

What was Shelby Highsmith's confirmation vote?

Shelby Highsmith was confirmed by voice vote on September 12, 1991. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.

Southern District of Florida / Appointed 1991 / Served to 2015

Shelby Highsmith

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

Appointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1991 and confirmed by voice vote, Shelby Highsmith was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. He earned a law degree from Kansas City School of Law (now University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law) in 1958. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Lived: 1929–2015
Appointed by: George H.W. Bush, 1991
Confirmed: by voice vote
Education: University of Kansas 1958 · Kansas City Law (now of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law) 1958
Succeeded: Thomas Emerson Scott Jr.
Succeeded by: Cecilia M. Altonaga

Federal judicial service

Year	Court	Appointed by	Vote
1991	Southern District of Florida succeeded Thomas Emerson Scott Jr.	G.H.W. Bush (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

Georgia Military College	A.A.	1949
University of Kansas	B.A.	1958
Kansas City School of Law (now University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law)	LL.B.	1958

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Highsmith was assigned 4,234 district-court cases (1986–2008). Median time from filing to termination: 232 days across 4,234 closed cases.

Contract26%

Prisoner & habeas19%

Civil rights15%

Personal-injury torts11%

Labor & ERISA8%

Other federal statutes7%

Other14%

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 34 of Highsmith’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 28 were affirmed, 4 reversed or vacated, and 2 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, Highsmith authored 121 published opinions for the court (1992–2004). Most cited: Banco Latino, S.A.C.A. v. Gomez Lopez (25 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
1999	Banco Latino, S.A.C.A. v. Gomez Lopez	53 F. Supp. 2d 1273	25
1997	Mobil Oil Corp. v. Dade County Esoil Management Co.	982 F. Supp. 873	24
1992	Doe v. Board of County Commissioners	783 F. Supp. 1379	24
2001	In Re Unicapital Corp. Securities Litigation	149 F. Supp. 2d 1353	21
2001	Association for Disabled Americans, Inc. v. Concorde Gaming Corp.	158 F. Supp. 2d 1353	20
1994	Campos v. Sociedad Aeronautica De Medellin Consolidada, S.A.	882 F. Supp. 1056	17
1994	Faragher v. City of Boca Raton	864 F. Supp. 1552	17
2001	Premix-Marbletite Manufacturing Corp. v. SKW Chemicals, Inc.	145 F. Supp. 2d 1348	15
2000	Banco Latino International v. Gomez Lopez	95 F. Supp. 2d 1327	15
1994	Nants v. Federal Deposit Insurance	864 F. Supp. 1211	15
1995	MCI Telecommunications Corp. v. O'Brien Marketing, Inc.	913 F. Supp. 1536	14
1994	Gary v. D. Agustini & Asociados, S.A.	865 F. Supp. 818	14
1993	Stein v. Miller	158 B.R. 876	14
1997	Benoit v. Ocwen Financial Corp., Inc.	960 F. Supp. 287	13
1993	Ulloa v. American Express Travel Related Services Co.	822 F. Supp. 1566	13

Showing the 15 most-cited of 121 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 Shelby Highsmith?: President George H.W. Bush appointed Shelby Highsmith to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in 1991.
Was Shelby Highsmith appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?: Shelby Highsmith was appointed by President George H.W. Bush, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Shelby Highsmith's confirmation vote?: Shelby Highsmith was confirmed by voice vote on September 12, 1991. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court was Shelby Highsmith on?: Shelby Highsmith was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Sources

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

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

See something wrong? Report an error. Fixes are logged in the corrections log.

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