Robert Lewis Hinkle

Born in November 7, 1951,[1] in Apalachicola, Florida, Hinkle received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Florida State University in 1972 and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1976. He was a law clerk for Judge Irving Goldberg, United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit from 1976 to 1977. From 1977 to 1978, he was in private practice in Atlanta, Georgia, then practiced in Tallahassee, Florida from 1978 to 1996. He became an adjunct professor of law at Florida State University in 1981.

Hinkle was nominated by President Bill Clinton on June 6, 1996, to a seat vacated by William H. Stafford, Jr. of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on July 25, 1996, and received his commission on August 1, 1996. He served as chief judge from 2004 to 2009. He took senior status on November 7, 2016.

On August 21, 2014, Hinkle issued a ruling in Brenner v. Scott that denied the state defendants' motion to dismiss and granted the same-sex couple plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction. In ordering the injunction, Judge Hinkle found that Florida's statutory and constitutional bans on same-sex marriage were federally unconstitutional.[2][3]

Hinkle heard the case Jones et al v. DeSantis which concerned a Florida law, SB 7066, which “required felons to pay legal fees as part of their sentences before regaining the vote”.[4] On May 24, 2020, he ruled that the law was “unconstitutional for those unable to pay, or unable to find out how much they owe”.[4]

• Robert Lewis Hinkle at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.