Walter Joseph Cummings Jr. (September 29, 1916 – April 24, 1999) was a United States Solicitor General and a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

Education and career

Born September 29, 1916, in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, Illinois, Cummings received a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree in 1937 from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

and a

Bachelor of Laws A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

in 1940 from

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...

. At Yale, he served on the business staff of campus humor magazine '' The Yale Record'' with Roy D. Chapin Jr. and James S. Copley. He served as Assistant Solicitor General and Special Assistant Attorney General at 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 ...

from 1940 to 1946. He was in private practice in Chicago from 1946 to 1966. He served as United States Solicitor General from 1952 to 1953.

Solicitor General service

In 1946, Cummings joined the Chicago law firm now known as Sidley Austin as a partner. He remained at the firm until 1966, taking his only leave of absence to become Solicitor General of the United States after President Truman’s December 1, 1952 appointment. At age 36, Cummings was the youngest Solicitor general to serve in the position. His short Solicitor General service (from December 1952–March 1953) was during the transitional period between the presidencies of Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Cummings only appeared before the Supreme Court in matters concerning alleged violations of the

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...

of convicts in a Florida prison camp and a question concerning the constitutionality of the emergency strike section of the Taft-Hartley Act.

Federal judicial service

Cummings was nominated by President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 11, 1966, to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, to a new seat authorized by 80 Stat. 75. He was confirmed by 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 ...

on August 10, 1966, and received his commission on August 11, 1966. He served as Chief Judge and as a member of the Judicial Conference of the United States from 1981 to 1986. His service terminated on April 24, 1999, due to his death in Chicago. He was the last federal appeals court judge in active service to have been appointed by President Johnson.

Notable cases

In ''Sprogis v. United Airlines'' (1971), Cummings ruled that United Airlines's requirement that female employees be unmarried but allowing male employees to be married constitutes sex discrimination and violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. In 1979, Cummings ruled in ''Carroll v. Talman Federal Savings And Loan Association of Chicago'' that requiring female employees to wear uniforms while allowing male employees to wear suits of their choice constitutes sex discrimination. Cummings cited his earlier ruling in ''Sprogis'' for his ruling in ''Carroll''.

References

Sources