John Trice Nixon

John Trice Nixon was born on January 9, 1933 in New Orleans, Louisiana.[1] His father, Herman Clarence Nixon, was a political scientist at Vanderbilt University and a member of the Southern Agrarians.[2] Nixon graduated from Harvard University, where he received an Artium Baccalaureus degree in 1955.[1] He served in the United States Army in 1958.[1] He earned a Bachelor of Laws from the Vanderbilt University Law School in 1960.[1]

Nixon was in private practice as a lawyer in Anniston, Alabama from 1960 to 1962.[1] He served as city attorney of Anniston from 1962 to 1964.[1] He was a trial attorney of the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice from 1964 to 1969.[1] He returned to private practice from 1969 to 1971.[1] He then served as a staff attorney of Office of the State Comptroller in Tennessee from 1971 to 1976.[1] Moving to Nashville, Tennessee in 1976, he practiced law there until 1977.[1] He then served as a judge of the Circuit Court of Tennessee from 1977 to 1978, and as a judge of the Tennessee Court of General Sessions from 1978 to 1980.[1]

Nixon was nominated by President Jimmy Carter on February 27, 1980, to the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, to a new seat created by 92 Stat. 1629.[1] He was confirmed by the United States Senate on May 9, 1980, and received his commission on May 12, 1980.[1] He served as Chief Judge from 1991 to 1998, and assumed senior status on August 15, 1998.[1] He took inactive senior status in 2016, meaning that while he remained a federal judge, he no longer heard cases or participated in the business of the court.[3]

Nixon married Betty C. Nixon, later a Nashville city councilor.[2] They had two daughters, Mignon,[2] and Anne, the former who is a professor at University College London (UCL) in London. The Nixons were divorced prior to Mrs. Nixon's death in 2016.[4]

Nixon died on December 19, 2019, in Los Angeles, California.[4]

• John Trice Nixon at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.