James Hardy Payne (born 1941 in Lubbock, Texas) is an inactive Senior United States District Judge in Oklahoma, sitting simultaneously on the federal courts for the Eastern, the Northern and the Western districts. Background, education, and early career James Hardy Payne was born in 1941 and grew up in Lubbock, Texas. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Oklahoma in 1963. In 1966, he graduated from the University of Oklahoma College of Law with a Juris Doctor. From 1966 until 1970, he was on active duty in the United States Air Force. He continued as an Air Force reservist from 1975 until 1992. From 1970 until 1973, Payne worked as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Oklahoma. In 1973, he entered private practice as lawyer for the firm of Sandlin and Payne, working as a partner to Robert Forney Sandlin (1934-2015), in Muskogee, Oklahoma. In 1988 Payne was appointed by the federal district judges of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, based in Muskogee, as a United States magistrate judge of that district, to assist the district judges. US District Judge On September 4, 2001, President George W. Bush nominated Payne to a seat that simultaneously serves all three of the United States district courts in Oklahoma: the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma (based in Tulsa) and the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma (based in Oklahoma City). The seat had been vacated by Judge Michael Burrage, who had resigned on March 1, 2001. Payne was confirmed on October 23, 2001, and received his commission the next day. Although Payne was jointly appointed to all three districts, he does not maintain chambers nor does he hear cases in the Western District of Oklahoma. He assumed senior status on August 1, 2017. Judge Payne served as Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma from 2002 to 2017. Tenth Circuit nomination under Bush On September 25, 2005, President Bush nominated Judge Payne to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit vacated by Judge Stephanie Kulp Seymour, who took senior status on October 16, 2005. On January 23, 2006, Will Evans of the Center for Investigative Reporting