Who appointed Sidney Allen Fitzwater?

President Ronald Reagan appointed Sidney Allen Fitzwater to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas in 1986.

Was Sidney Allen Fitzwater appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?

Sidney Allen Fitzwater was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.

What was Sidney Allen Fitzwater's confirmation vote?

The Senate confirmed Sidney Allen Fitzwater 52–42 on March 18, 1986.

Northern District of Texas / Appointed 1986 / Senior status since 2018

Sidney Allen Fitzwater

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

Appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1986 and confirmed by the Senate 52–42, Sidney Allen Fitzwater is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. He earned a law degree from Baylor University School of Law in 1976. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Born: 1953 · age 73
Appointed by: Ronald Reagan, 1986
Confirmed: 52–42
Education: Baylor 1975 · Baylor Law 1976
Succeeded: Robert Madden Hill
Succeeded by: Brantley David Starr

Federal judicial service

Year	Court	Appointed by	Vote
1986	Northern District of Texas succeeded Robert Madden Hill	Reagan (R)	52–42

Party letters show the appointing president’s party, not the judge’s own.

Confirmation vote

The Senate’s published per-senator roll-call records begin in 1989, so no senator-by-senator breakdown is available for this vote.

Education

Baylor University	B.A.	1975
Baylor University School of Law	J.D.	1976

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Fitzwater was assigned 10,106 district-court cases (1982–2026). Median time from filing to termination: 183 days across 9,627 closed cases.

Prisoner & habeas21%

Contract17%

Civil rights12%

Other civil matters12%

Personal-injury torts8%

Other federal statutes7%

Other23%

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 370 of Fitzwater’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 252 were affirmed, 34 reversed or vacated, and 84 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, Fitzwater authored 211 published opinions for the court (1986–2011). Most cited: In Re American Airlines, Inc., Privacy Litigation (140 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
2005	In Re American Airlines, Inc., Privacy Litigation	370 F. Supp. 2d 552	140
2007	Trugreen Landcare, L.L.C. v. Scott	512 F. Supp. 2d 613	100
1996	Bookman v. Shubzda	945 F. Supp. 999	97
1998	Coates v. Heartland Wireless Communications, Inc.	26 F. Supp. 2d 910	60
2009	Carolina Casualty Insurance v. Sowell	603 F. Supp. 2d 914	59
1995	BANK ONE, TX, NA v. Prudential Ins. Co. of Amer.	878 F. Supp. 943	51
2008	Owens v. MERCEDES-BENZ USA, LLC	541 F. Supp. 2d 869	49
2006	U.S. Bank National Ass'n v. Safeguard Insurance	422 F. Supp. 2d 698	47
1990	Senior Unsecured Creditors' Committee of First Republic-Bank Corp. v. Federal Deposit Insurance	749 F. Supp. 758	47
2011	Biggers v. BAC Home Loans Servicing, LP	767 F. Supp. 2d 725	44
2009	Valcho v. Dallas County Hospital District	658 F. Supp. 2d 802	38
1987	Enserch International Exploration, Inc. v. Attock Oil Co.	656 F. Supp. 1162	37
2008	Rolls-Royce Corp. v. Heros, Inc.	576 F. Supp. 2d 765	35
1991	Cedillo v. Valcar Enterprises & Darling Delaware Co.	773 F. Supp. 932	35
1990	Tutton v. Garland Independent School District	733 F. Supp. 1113	35

Showing the 15 most-cited of 211 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 Sidney Allen Fitzwater?: President Ronald Reagan appointed Sidney Allen Fitzwater to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas in 1986.
Was Sidney Allen Fitzwater appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?: Sidney Allen Fitzwater was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Sidney Allen Fitzwater's confirmation vote?: The Senate confirmed Sidney Allen Fitzwater 52–42 on March 18, 1986.
Which court is Sidney Allen Fitzwater on?: Sidney Allen Fitzwater is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

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.

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