[1] He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1942 from Birmingham-Southern College in Birmingham, where he became a member of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity.

[4] He was awarded the Silver Star for valor in combat and received two Purple Heart medals,[5] having seen action on Bougainville and Guam.

Heflin won his party's nomination by defeating U.S. Representative Walter Flowers of Tuscaloosa, a long-time George C. Wallace ally.

Heflin espoused the view that the time between the incident and the trial was part of the need for an overhauling of the criminal justice system, "so that it can more efficiently and effectively deal with the rising epidemic of violent crime in this nation", and noted the shootings of Pope John Paul II and President of Egypt Anwar Sadat as incidents that had happened after the Reagan shooting, yet had already seen the assailants be convicted and either jailed or executed.

Heflin stated that the delays in bringing defendants to trial formed "contempt for the system", in addition to denouncing the delays as part of the problem, calling for the Senate to form a "Crime Caucus", as part of an attempt to "put aside petty partisan politics and unite in an effort to wage a successful war on crime".

The legislation was intended to also initiate a long-range study of the federal court system, and call for major reforms in the American judiciary.

[8] In 1984, Heflin won a second Senate term, handily defeating Republican former U.S. Representative Albert L. Smith, Jr., of Birmingham, who had hoped to win by running on the re-election coattails of President Ronald Reagan.

In 1987, Heflin, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, voted against confirmation of Judge Robert Bork to the Supreme Court of the United States.

With Fritz Hollings of South Carolina, Heflin was one of only two Democrats in the Senate to vote against the Family and Medical Leave Act.

Heflin spoke of his pride and love for his Confederate ancestors, his respect for the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and his conflict in breaking with them over this issue.