James H. Payne

James Hardy Payne (born 1941) 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.