Joseph Chappell Hutcheson, Jr.

Joseph Chappell Hutcheson Jr. (October 19, 1879 – January 18, 1973) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and previously was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas. He served as Mayor of Houston from 1917 to 1918.

Early life Joseph Chappell Hutcheson Jr. was born on October 19, 1879, in Houston, Texas, to Mildred Lightfoot (née Carrington) and Joseph Chappell Hutcheson. He studied at the public and private schools of Houston and at Bethel Military Academy. Hutcheson studied at the University of Virginia, but transferred and graduated with a Bachelor of Laws in 1900 from the University of Texas School of Law.

Career Law practice and Mayor of Houston Hutcheson started a law practice with his father.

He served as Chief Judge and as a member of the Judicial Conference of the United States from 1948 to 1959. During this era he ran the court in what has been described as an autocratic manner, while after he stepped down as Chief Judge, Hutcheson sat on only five of the controversial civil rights cases Although he described himself as a Jeffersonian Democrat, Hutcheson was generally not unfavourable to the civil rights decisions of the "Fifth Circuit Four" emerging during the later years of his reign. Hutcheson assumed senior status on November 4, 1964,

Other service Hutcheson was also a member of the Anglo-American Committee on Displaced Persons that recommended in 1946 that Britain greatly increase the number of Jewish refugees it would let into Palestine.