Walter Nixon
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Walter Louis Nixon (born 1928 in Biloxi, Mississippi) is a former United States federal judge. He attended Tulane University Law School, graduating in 1951 and went into private practice in his hometown of Biloxi. He also served in the U.S. Air Force for a short stint between 1953 and 1955.
In 1968 he was nominated by President Lyndon B. Johnson to a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi and was confirmed by the Senate on 6 June of that year. In 1982, due to his length of tenure, he became Chief Judge of the same District Court.
In 1989, Judge Nixon (no relation to former US president Richard Nixon) was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives and removed from office by the U.S. Senate, for committing perjury before a grand jury. 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's. Although the case was assigned to a state court, Wiley Fairchild had asked Nixon to help out by speaking to the prosecutor. Nixon did so, and the prosecutor, a long-time friend of the judge's, dropped the case. When Nixon was interviewed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Justice, he denied any involvement whatsoever. Subsequently, a federal grand jury was empanelled and he again denied his involvement. He was convicted of making false statements to a grand jury. However, Nixon refused to resign and continued to collect his judicial salary while in prison.
Nixon appealed his removal to the United States Supreme Court, which rejected his appeal as a nonjusticiable political question. Nixon v. United States, 506 U.S. 224 (1993).
Because Nixon's impeachment was for perjury, the case was cited as a precedent in the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton.
Nixon returned to private practice, in Mississippi and in Lake Charles, Louisiana. He now lives and practices law in Biloxi, Mississippi.
[edit] Sources
- Federal Judicial Center Profile
- Testimony of Charles J. Cooper before the House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on the Constitution, November 9, 1998
- Louisiana State Bar directory
- Mississippi Bar directory
