Walter Newton
Walter Hughes Newton was a United States representative from Minnesota who also served in the Herbert Hoover administration as the secretary to the president.
Early life and career
Newton was born in Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota; attended the public schools and was graduated from the law department of the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis in 1905; was admitted to the bar the same year and commenced practice in Minneapolis, Minnesota; first assistant prosecuting attorney of Hennepin County 1914 - 1918;Congress
Newton was elected as a Republican to the 66th, 67th, 68th, 69th, 70th, and 71st congresses. He served from March 4, 1919, until his resignation on June 30, 1929.Congress in 1928 and 1929 adopted what was known as the "Newton Bill," to divide the jurisdiction of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, creating the Tenth Circuit, which sits in Denver. This was the first change in the geography of the federal courts since the present system of courts of appeals was created in 1891. The enormous Eighth Circuit had encompassed all the territory from the Mississippi almost to the states of the West Coast. Congressman Newton's plan resolved multiple disputes among the American Bar Association, the courts, and both Houses. Newton's solution was to divide the states along a North/South boundary, creating the Tenth Circuit as encompassing Oklahoma, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico, thereby leaving a somewhat unified grouping of Eighth Circuit states sharing the Mississippi/Missouri river system, from Minnesota and the Dakotas to Arkansas. The likeliest pre-Newton plan would have divided the circuit along a boundary from East to West.