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49 Nw. U. L. Rev. 54 (1954-1955)
From Congress to the Court of Appeals

handle is hein.journals/illlr49 and id is 68 raw text is: From Congress to the Court of Appeals Willard H. Pedrick* A FTER fourteen years in Congress and eight campaigns, Con- gressman Fred M. Vinson went to the White House in the late Fall of 1937 and was asked by President Roosevelt how he would like to be a Judge in the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The offered nomination was recognition and reward in part for Vinson's leadership in legislative battles for a number of administration measures including such relatively unpopular items as the Undistributed Profit tax of 1936 and the famous Court Pack- ing Bill of 1937. There surely was, as well, a recognition by the President that Vinson, over the years, had demonstrated excep- tional ability. From the way in which Vinson often spoke of the President there must have been, in addition, a very warm personal relation between the two men. What factors prompted the Kentucky Congressman to become a Judge? His finances had been seriously strained by the long period in Congress with the repeated campaigns service in the House requires. The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia offered honor, an important responsibility in our judicial system and lifetime financial security. Then too, the judicial appointment offered a change but permitted him to continue his life in Washing- ton, D. C., which he assuredly loved almost as much as he loved Kentucky. For these reasons which he sometimes offered by way of explanation and doubtless for others as well he accepted the appointment. Commissioned on December 15, 1937, he continued in Congress and delayed taking the oath of office as an Associate Justice of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia until May 12, 1938. Almost half of Fred Vinson's judicial career was with the Court of Appeals where he served for five years and seventeen days, until May 29, 1943 when he resigned to become the war time Director of Economic Stabilization. On the Court of Appeals he served with distinguished colleagues. Groner, Rutledge, Edgerton, Miller, Stephens and Vinson are the names of men who made their mark serving the Court. From this group Vinson and Rutledge are the two judges in our time who served within the federal judiciary and were later elevated to our highest court. The quality of Vinson's work as a Justice of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia must have been con- sidered in connection with his appointment in 1942 as Chief Judge of the United States Emergency Court of Appeals by Chief Justice Stone and again in 1946 when he was named as Chief Justice of *Professor of Law, Northwestern University.