George W. English

George W. English, during his impeachment hearings

George Washington English Sr. (May 9, 1866 – July 19, 1941) was a United States federal judge.

Born near Vienna, Illinois, English received an LL.B. from Illinois Wesleyan University in 1891. He was chief deputy sheriff of Johnson County, Illinois from 1891 to 1892. He engaged in the private practice of law in Vienna, Illinois from 1893–1912, and in Centralia, Illinois until 1914. During this period, he married, and his son, George Washington English, Jr. was born in 1898. He was city attorney of Vienna for a time while practicing there, and he served in the Illinois House of Representatives from 1907 to 1912. He was a special income tax attorney with the U.S. Treasury Department from 1914 to 1918.

On April 22, 1918, English was nominated by President Woodrow Wilson to a seat on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Illinois vacated by Francis M. Wright. English was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on May 3, 1918, and received his commission on the same day.

He was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives in 1926 for abusive treatment of lawyers and litigants appearing before him. He resigned from office on November 4, 1926, before his trial began. The U.S. Senate subsequently dismissed the charges against him.

John T. Rogers of St. Louis Post-Dispatch won the 1927 Pulitzer Prize for Reporting with his coverage of the inquiry leading to English's impeachment.

Following his departure from the Illinois court, English moved to South Florida, where his son, also a lawyer, had begun his law career with the firm that became Hall, Johnson & English. At the time, Fort Lauderdale, Florida was trying to recover from a devastating 1926 hurricane. The former judge assisted his son for 14 years until his death in Fort Lauderdale on July 19, 1941. He was buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Fort Lauderdale.

References

• Justice Learning Timeline
• The New York Times, November 5, 1926
• George Washington English at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
• "Evergreen Cemetery, Fort Lauderdale, Florida"