James Harvie Wilkinson III (born September 29, 1944) is an American attorney and jurist who has served as a United States circuit judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit since 1984. He was appointed to the Fourth Circuit by President Ronald Reagan and he served as chief judge of the circuit from 1996 to 2003.
James Harvie Wilkinson III
Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals
Chief Judge — U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
Born 1944 in New York, NY
FJC ID: 2587
Career output and lasting influence
Opinions attributed per year · peak 30/year
Later decisions citing those opinions, per year · peak 873/year
Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals · 1984–
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
- Judicial Conference of the United StatesMember · 1996–2003
Board member · 1992–1996
Faculty · 1973–1978, 1983- ↳associate professor · 1973–1978
- ↳professor · 1983
Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of JusticeDeputy assistant attorney general · 1982–1983- Norfolk Virginian-PilotEditorial page editor · 1978–1981
Law clerk , Hon. Lewis F. Powell · 1972–1973- Republican candidate for U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia1970
U.S. Army1968–1969
Appointments
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth CircuitChief Judge1984–present · Appointed by Ronald Reagan (Republican)
Education
- J.D. · 1972
- Yale UniversityB.A. · 1967