Thelton Eugene Henderson (born November 28, 1933) is an inactive senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. He has played an important role in the field of civil rights as a lawyer, educator, and jurist.
Thelton Eugene Henderson
California Northern District Court
Chief Judge — U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
Born 1933 in Shreveport, LA
FJC ID: 1024
Career output and lasting influence
Opinions attributed per year · peak 1/year
Later decisions citing those opinions, per year · peak 19/year
California Northern District Court · 1980–1998
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
- African American
Prior employment
- Private practice, San Francisco, California1977–1980
Associate professor · 1978–1980- Stanford Law SchoolAssistant dean · 1968–1977
- East Bayshore Neighborhood Legal Center, East Palo Alto, CaliforniaDirecting attorney · 1966–1969
- Private practice, Oakland, California1964–1966
Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of JusticeAttorney · 1962–1963
U.S. Army corporal1956–1958
Appointments
1980–1998 · Appointed by Jimmy Carter (Democratic)
Education
- University of California, Berkeley, School of LawJ.D. · 1962
- University of California, BerkeleyB.A. · 1956