James Earl Major

James Earl Major ( born January 5, 1887 in Donnellson, Montgomery County, Illinois; † January 4, 1972 in Hillsboro, Illinois) was an American lawyer and politician. Between 1923 and 1933 he represented three times the state of Illinois in the U.S. House of Representatives; then he became a federal judge.

Career

Major James attended the public schools of his native land and from then until 1907, the Brown's Business College. After a subsequent law degree at the Illinois College of Law in Chicago and his 1910 was admitted to the bar he began in Hillsboro to work in this profession. Between 1912 and 1920 he was a prosecutor in the local Montgomery County. At the same time he proposed as a member of the Democratic Party launched a political career.

In the congressional elections of 1922, Major was in the 21st electoral district of Illinois in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington DC chosen, where he succeeded the Republican Loren E. Wheeler took on 4 March 1923 that he had beaten in the election. Since he lost in 1924 against Wheeler, he was initially able to do only one term in Congress until March 3, 1925. He then practiced as a lawyer again. In the elections of 1926 Major was able to defeat his rival Wheeler again and again move in on March 4, 1927 in Congress, where he remained until March 3, 1929. In 1928, he lost to Frank M. Ramey. In 1930 he succeeded his comeback again in the Congress, where he Ramey replaced again on March 4, 1931. After a re-election Major was able to exercise his mandate until his resignation on October 6, 1933. This period was marked by the global economic crisis. In 1933 he was one of the congressmen who were entrusted with the implementation of an impeachment against the federal judge Harold Louderback.

Major withdrawal took place after his appointment to a federal judgeship. First, he was appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to the judge at the Federal District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, where he became the successor of Louis Fitzhenry on 26 January 1934. This he followed then again on 23 March 1937 as a judge of the Federal Court of Appeals for the Seventh District Court. From 1948 to 1954 he practiced there as Chief Judge of the chair. On March 23, 1956, he joined the senior status. He died on January 4, 1972 in Hillsboro.