John Trice Nixon
Appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1980 and confirmed by voice vote, John Trice Nixon was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. He earned a law degree from Vanderbilt University Law School in 1960. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Lived
- 1933–2019
- Appointed by
- Jimmy Carter, 1980
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- Harvard 1955 · Vanderbilt Law School 1960
- Succeeded by
- Aleta Arthur Trauger
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | Middle District of Tennessee | Carter (D) | Voice vote |
Party letters show the appointing president’s party, not the judge’s own. A voice vote means the chamber approved aloud. No senator-by-senator tally is recorded.
Confirmation vote
Voice vote
The Senate approved this confirmation aloud, with no senator-by-senator tally recorded. Recorded roll-call votes begin in 1989.
Education
| Harvard University | A.B. | 1955 |
| Vanderbilt University Law School | LL.B. | 1960 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Nixon was assigned 4,514 district-court cases (1977–2016). Median time from filing to termination: 230 days across 4,514 closed cases.
Case assignment is from CourtListener’s PACER-derived docket records: a partial sample, not a complete caseload, reflecting the judge last assigned each case. How we count.
On appeal
Of 109 of Nixon’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 89 were affirmed, 12 reversed or vacated, and 8 affirmed in part and reversed in part. This is a historical count of appellate outcomes for cases we could match, not a judgment of the judge, and not a complete record. How we count.
In our data, Nixon authored 166 published opinions for the court (1980–2011). Most cited: Coffey v. Dowley Manufacturing, Inc. (64 citations).
A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included. Counts and rankings are objective and recomputable: how we count. We describe the record, not the judge.
Recent & notable rulings
| Year | Case | Citation | Cited |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Coffey v. Dowley Manufacturing, Inc. | 187 F. Supp. 2d 958 | 64 |
| 1994 | Rickman v. Dutton | 864 F. Supp. 686 | 43 |
| 1984 | Groseclose Ex Rel. Harries v. Dutton | 594 F. Supp. 949 | 42 |
| 2010 | Hutchison v. Metropolitan Government | 685 F. Supp. 2d 747 | 41 |
| 1988 | United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co. v. Murray Ohio Manufacturing Co. | 693 F. Supp. 617 | 34 |
| 1992 | Timberlake by Timberlake v. Benton | 786 F. Supp. 676 | 33 |
| 2002 | Cooper v. MRM Investment Co. | 199 F. Supp. 2d 771 | 32 |
| 1993 | Wright v. Dow Chemical U.S.A. | 845 F. Supp. 503 | 27 |
| 2001 | John B. Ex Rel. L.A. v. Menke | 176 F. Supp. 2d 786 | 26 |
| 1985 | Production Steel, Inc. v. Bethlehem Steel Corp. (In Re Production Steel, Inc.) | 48 B.R. 841 | 26 |
| 1990 | Davis v. Connecticut General Life Insurance | 743 F. Supp. 1273 | 24 |
| 1994 | Rickman v. Dutton | 854 F. Supp. 1305 | 23 |
| 1993 | AmeriGas Propane, Inc. v. Crook | 844 F. Supp. 379 | 23 |
| 1990 | Tennessee Imports, Inc. v. Filippi | 745 F. Supp. 1314 | 23 |
| 1996 | Austin v. Bell | 927 F. Supp. 1058 | 19 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 166 authored opinions in our data. “Cited” is inbound citations across the CourtListener corpus. Case links open the ruling’s full text (CourtListener) or its page here; read the methodology and verify against the primary source.
Questions & answers
- Who appointed John Trice Nixon?
- President Jimmy Carter appointed John Trice Nixon to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee in 1980.
- Was John Trice Nixon appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- John Trice Nixon was appointed by President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was John Trice Nixon's confirmation vote?
- John Trice Nixon was confirmed by voice vote on May 9, 1980. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court was John Trice Nixon on?
- John Trice Nixon was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee.
Sources
Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.
- FJC Biographical Directory
- Wikidata
- Portrait: United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (Public domain), via Wikimedia Commons
- CourtListener bulk data (Free Law Project): authored opinions & citation counts
How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources
See something wrong? Report an error. Fixes are logged in the corrections log.
39 years on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).