Edward C. Eicher

Edward Clayton Eicher (December 16, 1878 – November 30, 1944) was a United States of America lawyer and federal judge. He represented Iowa's 1st congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1933 to 1938, was a member of the Securities and Exchange Commission from 1938 to 1942, and served as Chief Justice of the District Court of the United States for the District of Columbia from 1942 until his death in 1944.

Eicher was a staunch liberal in the Democratic Party and a supporter of the New Deal. In Congress, he backed the Roosevelt administration's key initiatives, including legislation on public utilities and the reorganization of the judicial system. In his judicial career, he is best known for presiding over the 1944 mass trial mass sedition prosecution United States v. McWilliams, which ended in a mistrial after his death.

Biography Early life and education Eicher was born on a farm near the unincorporated town of Noble, Iowa. His older brother, Henry Martin Eicher, was a Washington, Iowa attorney.

Edward Eicher attended public schools, Washington Academy in Washington, Iowa, and Morgan Park Academy in Morgan Park, Chicago. He studied law at the University of Chicago Law School. In 1904, he graduated from the University of Chicago with a Bachelor of Philosophy degree. In 1918, he returned to Washington where Eicher joined as a partner in his brother's law firm. Henry Eicher died next year, leaving Edward Eicher to manage the company Livingston and Eicher until 1933.

U.S. House of Representatives

Eicher was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1932. In 1932, Eicher was elected as a Democrat to the United States House of Representatives from Iowa's 1st congressional district. He was re-elected in 1934 and 1936 and served in the 73rd, 74th, and 75th United States Congresses from March 4, 1933, until December 2, 1938.

Eicher was a friend and a strong supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt. He had worked on the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935, backed the Roosevelt administration's Court Plan, and was one of the strongest New Deal supporters among congressional members involved in the federal antimonopoly investigation. When his congressional career ended, Time magazine described him as "a wheelhorse in a pasture of mavericks". Gillette defeated Wearin in the primary, a result that later affected Eicher's prospects for an appellate judgeship.

Securities and Exchange Commission

As his final congressional term ended, Roosevelt appointed Eicher to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. He was a member of the SEC from 1938 to 1942, serving as chair between 1941 and 1942. stood in the way. Instead, no Iowan received either judgeship.

Eicher was nominated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on December 30, 1941, to the Chief Justice seat on the District Court of the United States for the District of Columbia (now the United States District Court for the District of Columbia) vacated by Judge Alfred Adams Wheat. At the time of his death, Eicher had presided for over seven months at the trial of 30 suspected Axis conspirators and sympathizers. Time magazine characterized the trial as "biggest and noisiest sedition trial in United States history", and reported that "no one in Washington doubted that a ludicrously undignified trial had hastened the death of a scrupulously dignified judge." Eicher's death caused a mistrial. He was interred in Woodlawn Cemetery in Washington, Iowa.