Luther Bynum Way (September 26, 1879 – October 23, 1943) was a
United States district judge
The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district. Each district covers one U.S. state or a portion of a state. There is at least one feder ...
of the
.
Early and family life
Born in
Alamance County
Alamance County (), from the North Carolina Collection's website at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved September 18, 2012. is a county in North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 171,415. Its county sea ...
,
North Carolina
North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...
, Way graduated from the
University of Virginia School of Law
The University of Virginia School of Law (Virginia Law) is the law school of the University of Virginia, a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819 as part of his "academical village", and now ...
in 1907. He married Ione Hornaday, and they had three sons: Franklin (b. 1911), Luther Jr. (b. 1913) and O. Newton (b. 1915).
Legal career
Admitted to the Virginia bar, Way was in private practice in Norfolk from 1907 to 1922, and tried to revitalize the Republican party in the Tidewater region. As campaign manager for
Menalcus Lankford
Menalcus ("Mack") Lankford (March 14, 1883 – December 27, 1937) was a Virginia lawyer, naval aviator and Republican politician who served two terms as U.S. Representative from Virginia's 2nd congressional district, whose largest city is Norfo ...
, he did twice secure his friend's election to Congress. He was a special assistant to the
United States Attorney
United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal ...
in the
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of Law of the Unite ...
in 1922. He was in private practice in
Norfolk
Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...
,
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
from 1923 to 1931, and widely endorsed for the judicial post.
Federal judicial service
On February 21, 1931, President
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was the 31st president of the United States, serving from 1929 to 1933. A wealthy mining engineer before his presidency, Hoover led the wartime Commission for Relief in Belgium and ...
nominated Way to a seat on the
when Judge
Duncan Lawrence Groner
Duncan Lawrence Groner (September 6, 1873 – July 17, 1957) was an Associate Justice and later Chief Justice of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
Education and career
Born in Norfolk, Virginia, Groner attended the ...
was promoted to the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (in case citations, D.C. Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. It has the smallest geographical jurisdiction of any of the U.S. courts of appeals, ...
. The
United States Senate
The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...
confirmed Way on March 2, 1931, and he received his commission on March 4, 1931. He served in that capacity until his death on October 23, 1943, in Norfolk.
Because of the Great Depression, bankruptcies and receiverships (including of the
Norfolk Southern Railway
The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company was formed in 1982 with the merger of the Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. The comp ...
) in 1932, dominated his docket. Until Prohibition ended in December 1933, he also heard many liquor cases, as the Internal Revenue Service campaigned against untaxed liquor. He also was scheduled to hear the Curtiss Wright Corporation's libel suit against famed aviator Billy Mitchell, which was dismissed after Mitchell's death in 1936. During the New Deal, Judge Way heard cases concerning constitutionality of the Agricultural Adjustment Act, which the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately ruled unconstitutional. He also upheld the
Railway Labor Act
The Railway Labor Act is a United States federal law that governs labor relations in the railroad and airline industries. The Act, enacted in 1926 and amended in 1934 and 1936, seeks to substitute bargaining, arbitration, and mediation for strik ...
in 1934, deciding against the Virginian Railway and in favor of AFL Railway Employees Union No. 40. In 1935, he was joined by Judge
Robert N. Pollard, the first Democrat to become a judge in the district since the Civil War, and they would sit on several 3-judge panels in the next years.
Two of the more controversial cases Judge Way decided involved disparate pay for black schoolteachers and administrators. In the first case, involving Margaret Alston, Way had granted the school board's motion to dismiss, holding that Alston had accepted the lower pay in her annual contract. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed him, and the U.S. Supreme Court denied the school board's petition for review. Thus, when a similar matter involving schoolteacher Dorothy Roles reached Judge Way, in January 1943, he issued an injunction forbidding further pay discrimination.
Death and legacy
Judge Way died of a heart attack on October 23, 1943, about two weeks after being hospitalized for a heart condition. He was survived by his two older sons, who both served in the U.S. Army during World War II. He was preceded in death by his youngest son (1935) and his wife (1940). He was buried at Norfolk's Forest Lawn cemetery.
[Virginia death certificate on ancestry.com]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Way, Luther B.
1879 births
1943 deaths
Judges of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
United States district court judges appointed by Herbert Hoover
Virginia lawyers