ABOUT TO RETIRE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 117, 19 May 1937, Page 11

ABOUT TO RETIRE

AMERICAN JUDGE

(Received May 19, 10.10 a.m.) WASHINGTON, May 18. Mr. Willis Van Devanter, a member of the so-called Conservative wing of the Supreme Court, has announced his retirement as from June 2.

Mr. Van Devanter was born in 1859 and is now a month past his 78th birthday. He comes from Marion, In'fliana, and was educated at Asbury University, Cincinatti Law School, and De Pauw University, finally taking- his LL.D. He practised law in Marion, was a commissioner who revised the Statutes of Wyoming, was city attorney of Cheyenne, Wyoming, acted as chairman of the Territorial Legislature; became Chief Justice of Wyoming in 1889 and a member of the Republican National Committee in 1896. In 1897 he was appointed assistantAttorney General of the United States, and in 1903 became a Circuit Court Judge. He was raised to the Supreme Court in 1910.

• President Roosevelt's plan to reform the Court involves the increasing of the number of judges from nine to fifteen. The Court has decided against the New Deal in eleven out of thirteen principal cases before the beginning of the new term. During the present Presidency term the Court has decided in favour of the Administration in seven cases.