Born and raised in Selma and Washington, D.C., Judge Truman M Hobbs graduated from the University of North Carolina where he was student body president and a member of the Phi Beta Kappa academic fraternity and the Delta Kappa Epsilon social fraternity. He served four years in both the European and Pacific theaters where he volunteered as a hazardous duty deep-sea diver. For this he earned the Bronze Star and the Navy-Marine Corps Medal for Heroism. He was discharged from service with the rank of Lieutenant Commander.

Following the war, Judge Hobbs earned a law degree from Yale University School of Law and served as clerk to Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black. He returned to the South to begin his law practice in Montgomery, and eventually started his own firm with Judge John Godbold and Judge Richard Rives. The firm is now known as Copeland, Franco, Screws & Gill. Over his long career Hobbs served as president of the Alabama Bar Association, The Alabama Trial Lawyers Association, and the Montgomery County Bar Association.

He was appointed in 1980 to the federal bench by President Jimmy Carter and ultimately served as chief judge of the Middle District of Alabama. When he officially assumed the new position, the Montgomery Advertiser ran a story headlined, "'Most popular lawyer' in state sworn in as U.S. district judge." His tenure on the bench was widely recognized for its integrity, compassion, and intellect.