Sumners, Hatton W. (Hatton William), 1875-1962

Born in Lincoln County, Tennessee, attorney and democratic politician Hatton William Sumners (1875-1962) was the son of William A. Sumners and Anna Elizabeth Walker. In 1894, he moved with his family to Dallas County, Texas, where he studied law with Dallas attorney Alfred P. Wozencraft. After passing the Texas bar examination three years later, Sumners was elected Dallas County Attorney in 1900, and again in 1904 after losing in 1902. In 1906, he practiced law until he was appointed a congressman in the U. S. House of Representatives in 1912, serving sixteen more terms. From 1932 through 1946, Sumners served as chairman of the House Committee on the Judiciary, during which he challenged President Roosevelt’s court-packing plan of 1937, that would allow the president to appoint a new Supreme Court Justice after a sitting judge had reached 70 years of age and did not retire. Sumners retired to Dallas in 1946, serving as Director of the Research in Law and Government of the Southwestern Legal Foundation at Southern Methodist University.

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