20th-century American judges

Louis Joseph Freeh (born January 6, 1950) is an American attorney and former judge who served as the fifth Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from September 1993 to June 2001.
Graduated from Rutgers University and New York University School of Law, Freeh began his career as a special agent in the FBI, and was later an Assistant United States Attorney and United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. A Republican, he was later appointed as FBI director by President Bill Clinton. He is now a lawyer and consultant in the private sector.

Warren Eastman Hearnes (July 24, 1923 – August 16, 2009) was an American politician who served as the 46th governor of Missouri from 1965 to 1973. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first officeholder eligible to serve two consecutive four-year terms as Governor. He previously served as the Secretary of State of Missouri from 1961 to 1965.
After leaving office Hearnes was dogged by a tax investigation, relating to finances in and out of his administration. While later cleared of any wrongdoing, Hearnes faced trouble in future bids for office. He was the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in 1976, replacing Jerry Litton who died after winning the nomination, but lost to John Danforth in November. He subsequently lost bids for Missouri Auditor in 1978, and a Circuit Court Judge position in 1980.

Patrick Joseph Lucey (March 21, 1918 – May 10, 2014) was an American politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 38th Governor of Wisconsin from 1971 to 1977. He was also independent presidential candidate John B. Anderson's running mate in the 1980 presidential election.
Born in La Crosse, Wisconsin, Lucey served in state and local government offices after graduating from the University of Wisconsin. He served in the Quartermaster Corps of the United States Army during World War II. He held the position of Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin from 1965 to 1967 and unsuccessfully challenged Governor Warren P. Knowles in the 1966 gubernatorial election.
Lucey won the 1970 Wisconsin gubernatorial election and served as governor until 1977, when he accepted President Jimmy Carter's appointment to the position of United States Ambassador to Mexico. As governor, Lucey presided over the merger of the Wisconsin State University system and the University of Wisconsin System. In 1980, he agreed to serve as the running mate to John B. Anderson, a former Republican congressman running an independent campaign. The ticket of Anderson and Lucey won 6.6% of the popular vote in the 1980 election, which saw Carter unseated by Republican nominee Ronald Reagan.

Brendan Thomas Byrne (April 1, 1924 – January 4, 2018) was an American attorney and Democratic Party politician who served as the 47th Governor of New Jersey from 1974 to 1982.
Byrne began his career as a private attorney in Newark and East Orange. In 1959, Governor Robert B. Meyner appointed Byrne to serve as Essex County Prosecutor; he served in that role until 1968. In the late 1960s, an FBI wiretap recorded local mobsters calling Byrne "the man who couldn't be bought" in reference to his high ethical standards. The publication of the comment propelled Byrne to popularity in an era when corruption was a major concern in state and national politics. He left his office as prosecutor to serve as President of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities from 1968 to 1970, then as a Superior Court judge.
In 1973, using "the man who couldn't be bought" as a campaign slogan, Byrne ran for governor of New Jersey. He won the Democratic primary with support from the powerful Hudson County political machine and carried the general election. His landslide victory, until then the largest in the state's history, was seen as a reaction against a bribery scandal in state government and the Watergate scandal.
During his first term, Byrne signed the state's first income tax, which broke a campaign promise and was initially highly unpopular across party lines. In 1977, he faced several prominent challengers for the party nomination but won the Democratic primary with a small plurality of the vote. Despite expectations he would lose the general election to Raymond Bateman, Byrne came from behind to win a second term.
During his time as governor, Byrne oversaw the opening of the first gambling casinos in Atlantic City and established the New Jersey Department of the Public Advocate. He also preserved a large majority of woodlands and wildlife areas in the state by restricting development.

Curtis LeRoy Hansen (April 18, 1933 – October 27, 2023) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico.

James Louis Browning Jr. (December 8, 1932 – January 12, 2016) was a California jurist. He served as United States Attorney for the Northern District of California from 1969 to 1977 and later as a municipal, then state judge. He was the lead prosecutor in the sensational case that sent newspaper heiress Patty Hearst to prison in 1976.

Dick Yin Wong (September 13, 1920 – December 26, 1978) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii.

Thomas Tang (January 11, 1922 – July 18, 1995) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 1977 to 1995. Tang was the first American of Chinese descent to become a U.S. federal judge.

John Malach Shaw (November 14, 1931 – December 24, 1999) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana.

Robert Witherspoon Hemphill (May 10, 1915 – December 25, 1983) was a United States representative from South Carolina and later was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina.