Tinder joins the big leagues with seat on 7th Circuit

By Maria Kantzavelos

The 1992 baseball card featuring a mustachioed John Daniel Tinder in a Los Angeles Dodgers uniform could, perhaps, use some updating — particularly in the space referring to one of the favorite activities of the player nicknamed ‘The Judge.’

“One of John’s favorite activities is being affirmed by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals,” notes the statement on the backside of the mock baseball card.

The card — which “probably would trade on eBay for about two cents,” Tinder said — is a memento from his second visit to Dodgertown in Vero Beach, Fla., where Tinder ran bases and rubbed shoulders with some of the retired players and coaches of his all-time favorite major-league baseball team as a participant in Dodgers’ fantasy camp.

That was also around the time when Tinder was playing out a long career as a trial judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, where he handled an average of 400 civil cases and 50 criminal cases at any one time.

After 20 years on the federal bench in Indianapolis, in December Tinder went from being the next in line for the position of chief judge of the district to becoming the “tail of the dog” as the most junior of the judges on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

“It’s an exciting time for me, personally, to go through this,” Tinder said recently from a vacant office in the Dirksen Federal Courthouse. “Here I am at 57, approaching 58. Starting a whole new phase of a career is really energizing. It’s something that’s hard to stop smiling about.

“There’s no particular magic to it, but you can imagine after doing something for 20 years and being very comfortable in doing that and enjoying that, and to walk away from that and do something that might even be more interesting and more enjoyable — it’s a great opportunity.”

And while the old baseball card from fantasy camp also points out that his goal in life is “to become the Commissioner of Major League Baseball,” Tinder said his appointment to the appeals court is a point in his career where he had not, even in his “wildest dreams,” thought he would reach from his early years as a federal prosecutor arguing his first cases before the 7th Circuit.

“This is well beyond any success I thought I would have,” Tinder said. “I don’t usually look back; I live in the present. But I suppose, if I take a minute and look back, I have to chuckle. I am a bit amazed that I am here doing this. Who, realistically, could ever aspire to this? The opportunities to do this are very rare. There is no certain job path that leads somebody from the places I’ve been to where I am now. I just feel very fortunate that all of these different things have happened to me.”

Tinder fills the vacancy created by Judge Daniel A. Manion, who has opted to take senior status while continuing to carry a full caseload. Tinder was sworn in on Dec. 28, after a unanimous confirmation vote by the U.S. Senate, and a formal investiture is scheduled for April 11 in Indianapolis.

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