Aleta Arthur Trauger

Born in Denver, Colorado, Trauger received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Cornell College in 1968, a Master of Arts in Teaching from Vanderbilt University in 1972, and a Juris Doctor from Vanderbilt University Law School in 1976. She was a clerk and associate in private practice in Tennessee from 1974 to 1977. She was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Middle District of Tennessee from 1977 to 1979 and from 1980 to 1982, serving in the Northern District of Illinois from 1979 to 1980. She was in private practice from 1983 to 1984, and was legal counsel to the College of Charleston from 1984 to 1985, returning to private practice from 1985 to 1991. She was a Chief of staff, Office of the Mayor, Nashville, Tennessee from 1991 to 1992. From 1993 to 1998, she was a United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Middle District of Tennessee.

On September 22, 1998, President Bill Clinton nominated Trauger to a seat on the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee vacated by John Trice Nixon. She was confirmed by the United States Senate on October 21, 1998, and received her commission on October 22, 1998.

On March 14, 2014, Judge Trauger issued a preliminary injunction ordering Tennessee to recognize the marriages of three same-sex couples consummated out-of-state. In her ruling, Judge Trauger did not directly hold Tennessee's ban unconstitutional, but stated that, "At some point in the future, likely with the benefit of additional precedent from circuit courts and, perhaps, the Supreme Court, the court will be asked to make a final ruling on the plaintiffs’ claims. At this point, all signs indicate that, in the eyes of the United States Constitution, the plaintiffs’ marriages will be placed on an equal footing with those of heterosexual couples and that proscriptions against same-sex marriage will soon become a footnote in the annals of American history".[2]

On March 23, 2017, Judge Trauger issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting Rutherford County from subjecting children to solitary confinement while their case proceeds.[3]

On July 3, 2018, Judge Trauger struck down a law that would allow Tennessee officials to revoke driver's licenses of defendants who could not pay their court costs.[4]

In September 2019, Trauger warned that a Tennessee law that restricted voter registration had "chilling effects" on individuals and organizations that were trying to register new voters in Tennessee.[5] On September 12, Trauger struck down the law, ruling that there was no basis that the law would benefit Tennesseans. The law would have fined groups that pay workers when too many incomplete registration forms are submitted, and would have criminalized intentional infractions of a new set of rules with misdemeanor charges.[6]

• Aleta Arthur Trauger at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.