John Paul Jr. (December 9, 1883 – February 13, 1964) was Virginia lawyer and farmer who served in the Virginia Senate and United States House of Representatives, before becoming a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia, and serving as Chief Judge during the Byrd Organization's Massive Resistance to the U.S. Supreme Court's decisions in Brown v. Board of Education.
John Paul Jr.
Virginia Western District Court
Chief Judge — U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia
Born 1883 in Harrisonburg, VA
Died 1964 in Ottobine, VA
FJC ID: 1852
Career output and lasting influence
Opinions attributed per year · peak 3/year
Later decisions citing those opinions, per year · peak 16/year
Virginia Western District Court · 1932–1964
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
U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia1929–1932- Private practice, Harrisonburg, Virginia1907–1917, 1924–1929
- Special assistant to the Attorney General of the United States1923–1924
- Harrisonburg, VirginiaCity attorney · 1919–1923
- U.S. representative from Virginia1922–1923
- VirginiaState senator · 1911–1915, 1919–1922
U.S. Army1917–1919- Candidate for U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia1916, 1918
Appointments
1932–1964 · Appointed by Herbert Hoover (Republican)Term ended: Death
Education
LL.B. · 1906- Virginia Military InstituteB.A. · 1903