Robert N. C. Nix, Jr.

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Robert N. C. Nix, Jr. bigraphy, stories - American judge

Robert N. C. Nix, Jr. : biography

July 13, 1928 – August 23, 2003

Robert Nelson Cornelius Nix, Jr. (July 13, 1928 – August 23, 2003) served as the Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court from 1984 to 1996.R.N.C. Nix Jr., 75, Groundbreaking Judge, N.Y. Times, August 26, 2003, available at 2003 WLNR 5648617 Nix was the first African American Chief Justice of any state’s highest court, and the first African American to be elected to statewide office in Pennsylvania. He served as a justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania for 24 years, 12 of which were as chief justice, and was a prominent figure in Pennsylvania law and public service for more than three decades.

Controversies

Justice Nix was involved in several high profile controversies. In 1966, when running for election as a judge on the Philadelphia court of common pleas, Nix was criticized for continuing to be on his father, Congressman Robert Nix Sr.’s, payroll as a congressional assistant, despite working as an attorney in private practice, and for collecting money each month from Congress in rent for his fathers use of space in Nix’s office. The rental agreement was dropped soon after.

In 1981 Justice Nix was retained for a second ten-year term in a controversial election. A public feud between Nix and Justice Rolf Larsen took on racial undertones when newspapers reported that Larsen allegedly threatened to publicize the fact that Justice Nix was black in an attempt to defeat him.David Lauter, Pa. High Court in Turmoil: Justices Sidestep Misconduct Probe; Impeachment Rumors Abound, Nat’l L.J., June 27, 1983, at 1, 27-28, 32 available 68 Temp. L. Rev. 1041 at 1044 Larsen was investigated and exonerated by a judicial board of inquiry, however, the disputes between the Justices continued. In 1992 Larsen was accused of improperly communicating with a trial judge about a case (Larsen was later found to have engaged in misconduct and publicly reprimanded).68 Temp. L. Rev. 1041 at 1045 Larsen in turn filed court documents accusing Nix of similar conduct. Both the District and Appellate courts concluded in 1995 that Nix had, in fact, improperly intervened in the trial in question. After stepping down in 1996, Justice Nix said his difficulties with Larsen were "regrettable, but we were able to eliminate that and restore confidence in the judicial system." Larsen was ultimately impeached and removed from office for unrelated misconduct.

Legal career

After graduating from law school, Nix spent 2 years serving in the United States Army before becoming a Deputy Attorney General in 1956.University of Pennsylvania Obituary, available at http://www.upenn.edu/gazette/0304/0304obits.html#23 After 2 years in the Attorney General’s Office he joined his father’s law firm, Nix, Rhodes and Nix, as a partner, where he gained a reputation as a civil rights advocate. During the 1960s, he represented United Neighbors, a citizens’ group advocating improvements in a blighted section of West Philadelphia. He served as a member of the mayor’s advisory committee on civil rights in 1963, where he raised questions about racial discrimination in city government hiring, and pushed for action against slumlords. Following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Nix commented that unless the nation made a commitment to racial equality, it faced “an internal conflagration that will reduce it to ashes.”

He also defended Philadelphia Magistrate Earl Lane in a 1966 case with political and racial overtones.Philadelphia’s Magisterial Mess, Time Magazine, Oct. 1, 1965, available at http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,834432-2,00.html Lane was accused of collecting $2 to $20 fees for signing copies of charges that released people accused of crimes, a procedure that was supposed to be free or, if bail was required, cost a dollar. Nix unsuccessfully sought a new judge and a change of venue for the trial, contending that Lane, a former Pullman porter and Democratic committeeman, had been unfairly singled out for prosecution on charges far more minor than those the other magistrates faced. After Lane was convicted and sentenced to 11 to 23 months in prison, Nix said Lane was "the first man in the history of the state charged with this crime" and that at least 19 other magistrates did the same thing but had not been charged.