John Randolph Tucker (December 24, 1823 - February 13, 1897) was born in Winchester, Virginia, the son of Henry St. George Tucker, and grandson of St. George Tucker. He graduated from the University of Virginia in 1844 and married Laura Powell in 1848. They had a single son, Henry St. George Tucker, III and several daughters. Tucker was Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Virginia from 1857 to 1865.
Elected to the United States House of Representatives as a Democrat in 1875, he served until 1887. He was chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means in the 46th Congress and chairman of the House Committee on the Judiciary in the 48th and 49th Congresses. He introduced legislation broadening the power of the federal Court of Claims to hear Constitutional claims in 1886. This became known as the Tucker Act. He declined to be renominated to the House in 1886.
Tucker made an unsuccessful but legally influential argument on behalf of August Spies and the other Haymarket Riot defendants during their appeal to the Supreme Court. Elected professor of Constitutional law at Washington and Lee University in 1888, Tucker was Dean of the School of Law from 1893 to 1897. Tucker served as president of The Virginia Bar Association in 1891-1892, and president of the American Bar Association in 1894. He died in 1897 in Lexington, Virginia and is buried in Winchester. His two volume treatise, The Constitution of the United States, appeared posthumously in 1899. The modern J. R. Tucker High School in Henrico County, Virginia, is named after him.
- Race Progress in the United States, by J. R. Tucker, The North American review. / Volume 138, Issue 327 (February, 1884) pp. 163-178
- The History of the Federal Convention of 1787, and of its work, by J. Randolph Tucker, New Englander and Yale review / Volume 47, Issue 209 (August, 1887) pp. 97-147.
- Virginia in the Supreme Court, by J. Randolph Tucker, The North American review / Volume 146, Issue 379 (June, 1888) pp. 674-681.
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- Davis, John W. (1952). "John Randolph Tucker: The Man and His Work". in John Randolph Tucker Lectures (Lexington, Virginia: Washington & Lee University).
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