Born in Bloomington, Indiana, Hamilton grew up in southern Indiana and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Haverford College in 1979, followed by a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School in 1983. He also performed graduate work as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Tübingen in Germany. Hamilton worked from 1983 until 1984 as a law clerk for Judge Richard Dickson Cudahy of the Seventh Circuit. He then entered private practice in Indianapolis until 1989 as an associate at the law firm of Barnes & Thornburg. He served as legal counsel to Indiana Governor Evan Bayh from 1989 until 1991. Hamilton returned to Barnes & Thornburg in Indianapolis, working as a partner from 1991 until becoming a federal judge in 1994. During his time in private practice, Hamilton frequently did pro bono work for the Indiana Civil Liberties Union, where he served briefly as a board member and vice president for litigation.
Federal judicial service
nominated Hamilton to be a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana on June 8, 1994. The Senate confirmed Hamilton in a voice vote on October 7, 1994. In 2008, Hamilton became the chief judge of the Southern District of Indiana. A number of cases Hamilton decided as a district court judge drew media attention. In American Amusement Mach. Ass'n v. Cottey, Hamilton held that the First Amendment did not prevent the city of Indianapolis from requiring parental consent for children to have access to video games containing explicit sexual content or extreme violence. This ruling was overturned by the Seventh Circuit. Hamilton drew headlines in 2005 for ruling that the Indiana state legislature violated the Establishment Clause when it began sessions with Christian prayers imploring conversion to Christianity or representing Christianity as the only true faith. He held that prayers invoking Jesus Christ or using terms like were sectarian, but names for God in other languages were permissible, absent evidence that those words were used in order to advance or disparage a particular religion. The ruling was overturned by the Seventh Circuit on the ground that the taxpayer plaintiffs lacked standing. On March 17, 2009, President Obama announced his intention to nominate Hamilton to a vacancy on the Seventh Circuit that was created by the September 2008 transition to senior status by Judge Kenneth Francis Ripple. Obama formally nominated Hamilton later that day. On November 17, 2009, the Senate voted 70–29 to end the Republican filibuster of the nomination, and the Senate approved Hamilton's nomination in a 59–39 vote two days later. In March 2017, Hamilton partially dissented when the circuit found that police officers could not be sued for needlessly destroying property during a search because they had prevented the owner from witnessing which officers had caused the damage and that the owner had not pled a novel “conspiracy of silence” claim. On August 27, 2019, Hamilton wrote the majority opinion in blocking Indiana's parental notification requirement. Hamilton was joined by Ilana Rovner, over the dissent of Michael Steven Kanne. On November 1, 2019, the 7th circuit denied rehearing by a vote of 6-5, with Hamilton in the majority, however Frank Easterbrook, who provided the decisive vote, called on the Supreme Court to hear the case. On August 29, 2019, Hamilton was one of 3 judges that upheld Illinois' assault weapon ban.
Family
Hamilton's brother, John Hamilton, is the current Mayor of Bloomington and is married to Dawn Johnsen, whose nomination to serve as assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel in the United States Department of Justice was blocked by the Senate. His father, Richard "Dick" Hamilton is a retired United Methodist minister who served the North United Methodist Church in Indianapolis for many years. Hamilton is a nephew of former Congressman Lee H. Hamilton.
