Читать книгу The Trial of the Chicago 7: History, Legacy and Trial Transcript - Bruce A. Ragsdale - Страница 42
ОглавлениеWalter Joseph Cummings (1916-1999)
Judge Walter J. Cummings Courtesy of the Seventh Circuit Library.
Walter Cummings was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit by President Johnson in 1966, and he served on the court until his death. Cummings was the author of the court’s opinion of May 11, 1972, In re David Dellinger et al., which overturned the contempt convictions of the defendants and remanded most of the charges for retrial by a different judge. The opinion ordered that any defendant facing contempt charges subject to more than six months’ imprisonment would be entitled to a jury trial. Cummings also authored the court’s opinion in United States v. Bobby G. Seale, in which the appeals court reversed the contempt convictions of Bobby Seale and remanded for retrial most of those charges, minus four that the court decided were not based on behavior that obstructed the trial.
Cummings graduated from Yale University in 1937 and from the Harvard Law School in 1940. He then served as an attorney in the Department of Justice for six years, including a term as assistant solicitor general. He later served as the solicitor general from 1952-1953, the youngest person to hold that position. Before joining the court of appeals, Cummings was in private practice in Chicago for twenty years, during which time he served as president of the Seventh Circuit Bar Association.
