Walter Louis Nixon Jr. (born December 16, 1928) is a former United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi who in 1989 was

impeached Impeachment is the process by which a legislative body or other legally constituted tribunal initiates charges against a public official for misconduct. It may be understood as a unique process involving both political and legal elements. In ...

by the House of Representatives and removed from office by the Senate. Because Nixon's impeachment was for perjury, the case was cited as a precedent in the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton.

Education and career

Born in 1928, in Biloxi, Mississippi, Nixon received a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

in 1951 from Tulane University Law School. He entered private practice in Biloxi from 1952 to 1968, interrupted by service in the United States Air Force from 1953 to 1955.

Federal judicial service

Nixon was nominated by President Lyndon B. Johnson on May 29, 1968, to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, to a new seat authorized by 80 Stat. 75. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on June 6, 1968, and received his commission on June 7, 1968. He served as Chief Judge from 1982 to 1989. His service terminated on November 3, 1989, due to his impeachment and conviction.

Impeachment

Nixon was convicted in 1986 on perjury charges and sentenced to 5 years in prison. The offense stemmed from his grand jury testimony and statements to federal officers concerning his intervention in the state drug prosecution of Drew Fairchild, the son of Wiley Fairchild, a business partner of Nixon. Although the case was assigned to a state court, Wiley Fairchild had asked Nixon to help out by speaking to the

prosecutor A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the Civil law (legal system), civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the ...

. Nixon did so, and the prosecutor, a long-time friend, dropped the case. When Nixon was interviewed by the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...

(FBI) and the United States Department of Justice, he denied any involvement whatsoever. Subsequently, a

federal Federal or foederal (archaic) may refer to: Politics General *Federal monarchy, a federation of monarchies *Federation, or ''Federal state'' (federal system), a type of government characterized by both a central (federal) government and states or ...

grand jury A grand jury is a jury—a group of citizens—empowered by law to conduct legal proceedings, investigate potential criminal conduct, and determine whether criminal charges should be brought. A grand jury may subpoena physical evidence or a pe ...

was empaneled and he again denied his involvement. He was convicted of

making false statements Making false statements () is the common name for the United States federal process crime laid out in Section 1001 of Title 18 of the United States Code, which generally prohibits knowingly and willfully making false or fraudulent statements, or ...

to a grand jury. In 1989, he was

by the United States House of Representatives and convicted by the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

, for committing perjury before a

. Upon his conviction by the Senate, he was removed from office. Nixon

appeal In law, an appeal is the process in which cases are reviewed by a higher authority, where parties request a formal change to an official decision. Appeals function both as a process for error correction as well as a process of clarifying and ...

ed his impeachment and removal to the United States Supreme Court. In ''

Nixon v. United States ''Nixon v. United States'', 506 U.S. 224 (1993), was a United States Supreme Court decision that determined that a question of whether the Senate had properly tried an impeachment was political in nature and could not be resolved in the courts if ...

'', handed down in 1993, the Court rejected his appeal as a nonjusticiable political question.. He returned to private practice in Mississippi from 1993 to 1998. He has practiced law in Lake Charles, Louisiana since 1998.

References

Sources

Testimony of Charles J. Cooper before the House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on the Constitution, November 9, 1998Louisiana State Bar directoryMississippi Bar directory
, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Nixon, Walter 1928 births 20th-century American judges Disbarred American lawyers Impeached United States federal judges removed from office Judges convicted of crimes Judges of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi Living people Louisiana lawyers Military personnel from Mississippi Mississippi lawyers Mississippi politicians convicted of crimes People convicted of making false statements People from Biloxi, Mississippi Tulane University Law School alumni United States district court judges appointed by Lyndon B. Johnson

Education and career

Federal judicial service

Impeachment

See also

References

Sources