Eugene Hoffman Nickerson (August 2, 1918 – January 1, 2002) was an American lawyer. Nickerson was the only Democrat to be elected county executive in Nassau County until 2001. Later, as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, he presided over a challenge to the Pentagon's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy on homosexuality and the notorious Abner Louima police brutality case in New York.
Eugene Hoffman Nickerson
New York Eastern District Court
Born 1918 in Orange, NJ
Died 2002 in New York, NY
FJC ID: 1760
Career output and lasting influence
Later decisions citing those opinions, per year · peak 14/year
New York Eastern District Court · 1977–2002
Both charts share the same year axis. Opinion counts include only opinions in our corpus attributed to this judge so far — a year at zero can mean an attribution gap, not judicial silence. Influence typically outlasts the career: citations keep climbing after the last opinion.
- Gender
- Male
- Race
- White
Prior employment
- Private practice, New York City1946–1961, 1971–1977
- Nassau County, New YorkCounty executive · 1962–1970
Law clerk , Hon. Harlan F. Stone · 1944–1946
Law clerk , Hon. Augustus N. Hand · 1943–1944
Appointments
1977–2002 · Appointed by Jimmy Carter (Democratic)Term ended: Death
Education
LL.B. · 1943- Harvard UniversityB.A. · 1941