Eugene Nickerson

Who was Eugene Nickerson?

Eugene Hoffman Nickerson was the Democratic county executive of Nassau County, New York from 1962 until 1970. Nickerson was the only Democrat to be elected county executive in Nassau County until 2001. Later, as a federal district court judge, he presided over a challenge to the Pentagon’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on homosexuality and the notorious Abner Louima police brutality case in New York.

A descendant of President John Quincy Adams, he entered public life as a patrician liberal politician, but later developed a reputation as a steely, independent-minded judge with little patience for lawyers' antics.