Tinder joins the big leagues with seat on 7th Circuit

A ‘regular guy’

Chief U.S. District Judge David F. Hamilton of the Southern District of Indiana called his longtime colleague a “judge’s judge and a lawyer’s lawyer.” He said Tinder’s “wealth of trial experience,” both as a judge and a lawyer, gives him an intimate knowledge of the dynamics of a trial, one of several attributes that make him a “terrific addition to the 7th Circuit.”

“He’s fair, he’s smart, he’s hard-working and he has the trust and respect of the people who put their cases in his hands. If you lose, he tells you why. There aren’t hidden agendas in the opinions, and he plays straight with the facts and the applicable law,” Hamilton said. “He knows how to read between the lines of a record to understand the dynamics of what was happening in the trial court. He’s also an incredibly fair-minded guy.”

Plus, he’s a “regular guy,” said Chief U.S. District Judge James F. Holderman of the Northern District of Illinois, who has known Tinder since he joined the federal bench in 1987.

“He has a very practical approach to the application of the law,” Holderman said. “I think the other judges of the 7th Circuit will enjoy having him on the court, because he’s a very affable man who enjoys the law, enjoys judging, and enjoys life.”

Tinder acknowledged, with a hint of reluctance, that he also enjoys playing golf.

“It’s embarrassing, chasing a little ball around a golf course. I just hate to admit I do such frivolous things,” he said, adding that “none of [his hobbies] are going to change the world; they’re just things I enjoy doing.”

His Netflix queue of movies yet to see was nearly 90 movies deep by February, said Tinder, who wanted the Coen brothers’ “No Country for Old Men” to win this year’s Oscar for best picture. And since the conclusions of “The Sopranos” and “Six Feet Under,” “none of the [HBO] series are really that interesting to me right now,” he said, except maybe “Entourage.”

“I’d like to tell you I’m reading great works of literature and listening to symphonies and such, but that’s not me,” Tinder said. “I do like great literature, but I do like things like John Irving books, Dennis Lehane, and a lot of modern authors.”

Tinder, who said he tries to ride his bike to work during warm weather at least three times a week, is keeping his principal office in the old federal courthouse in Indianapolis where he has worked for more than two decades.

“It’s like the Hotel California — you can check out, but you can never leave,” he said.

Tinder, who enjoys attending live rock and pop concerts (Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, and James Taylor are among the musicians he’s seen in recent years. He’s a fan of Eddie Vedder of the rock band Pearl Jam, and he claims to be the only federal judge who’s ever been to a back-stage party with Irish group, The Chieftains), began trying cases at a young age.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6