Wilson received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Lehigh University in 1963.
He was a trial attorney of the Tax Division of the United States Department of Justice from 1968 to 1971.
He was an Assistant United States Attorney of Los Angeles, California from 1971 to 1977.
He was the Chairman of the Federal Indigent Defense Panel Committee of the District Court in Los Angeles from 1979 to 1980.
[1] In 1988, Wilson threw out provisions of a 1952 immigration law that the government used to deport aliens who advocate world communism.