Born in Cadiz, Kentucky, Vinson attended the United States Naval Academy and graduated in 1962 with a bachelor’s degree in engineering. He served at Naval Air Station Pensacola as a Naval aviator from 1962–1968, attaining the rank of lieutenant. After his service, he attended Vanderbilt University and received his J.D. in 1971.
Returning to Pensacola, Florida, Vinson joined the law firm of Beggs & Lane, where he practiced general civil law from 1971–1983. He was nominated to the federal bench by President Ronald Reagan on September 9, 1983 to a seat vacated by Lynn C. Higby, was confirmed by the Senate on October 4, and received his commission a day later. Among the notable cases he has presided over:
Four defendants of abortion clinic bombing, 1985[1]
Escambia County, Florida ordinance banning The Last Temptation of Christ, 1988[2]
Shoney’s $134 million race discrimination settlement, 1993[3]
Paul Jennings Hill (federal Clinic Access Law charges), 1994[4]
Sentenced Financial Manager Marcus Schrenker, who attempted to fake his own death by parachuting out of his plane after charges were brought against him for securities fraud, to four years in federal prison in 2009.[5]
Vinson was chief judge from 1997 to 2004. He assumed senior status on March 31, 2005.
He was appointed to serve a seven-year term on the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Court, effective May 4, 2006.[6] In 2009 he was installed as president of the American Camellia Society.[7]
In 2010, Vinson was assigned to hear a case brought by a group of 20 states that was filed with support by 16 attorneys generals and four governors challenging the constitutionality of the new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s requirement that most individuals obtain medical insurance. The suit is the second of more than 15 lawsuits filed against the act that has advanced to this stage of litigation.[8]
On January 31, 2011, Vinson ruled that the entire Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act was unconstitutional. [9]