Cummings, Homer S. (1870–1956)
CUMMINGS, HOMER S. (1870–1956)
A prominent Connecticut Democrat, Homer S. Cummings served as attorney general under President franklin d. roosevelt from 1933 to 1939, defending much of the new deal legislation in the Supreme Court. He broke with recent practice when he personally argued the gold clause cases (1935), and the Court reiterated much of his argument in its opinions. Cummings strongly supported Roosevelt's court-packing plan as "clearly constitutional" and privately suggested a constitutional amendment requiring justices to retire at seventy. With Carl McFarland, he wrote Federal Justice (1937), a history of the Department of Justice based on previously neglected manuscript materials. Cummings instituted reform of federal criminal and administrative procedures, helping secure adoption of the federal rules of civil procedure in 1938.
David Gordon
(1986)