James Dickson Phillips Jr. (September 23, 1922 – August 27, 2017) was an American attorney and jurist who served as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
James Dickson Phillips Jr.
Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals
Born 1922 in Scotland County, NC
Died 2017 in Chapel Hill, NC
FJC ID: 1879
Career output and lasting influence
Opinions attributed per year · peak 13/year
Later decisions citing those opinions, per year · peak 357/year
Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals · 1978–2017
Both charts share the same year axis. Opinion counts include only opinions in our corpus attributed to this judge so far — a year at zero can mean an attribution gap, not judicial silence. Influence typically outlasts the career: citations keep climbing after the last opinion.
- Gender
- Male
- Race
- White
Prior employment
Faculty · 1960–1978- ↳lecturer and associate professor of law · 1960–1964
- ↳dean · 1964–1974
- ↳professor of law · 1964–1978
- Private practice, Fayetteville, North Carolina1955–1959
- Private practice, Laurinburg, North Carolina1949–1955
- Institute of Government, Chapel Hill, North CarolinaAssistant director · 1948–1949
U.S. Army first lieutenant1943–1946
Appointments
1978–2017 · Appointed by Jimmy Carter (Democratic)Term ended: Death
Education
- J.D. · 1948
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hilljd · 1948
- Davidson CollegeB.S. · 1943