William Squire Kenyon

William Squire Kenyon was a United States circuit judge who served on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit from 1922 until his death in 1933. Before his appointment to the federal bench, he represented Iowa in the United States Senate for more than a decade, where he established himself as a leading progressive voice on issues including antitrust regulation, labor protections, and agricultural policy. His judicial career, though cut short by his death at age 64, included authorship of a significant opinion in litigation arising from the Teapot Dome scandal, one of the major political controversies of the 1920s.

Early life and legal career

Born on June 10, 1869, in Elyria, located in Lorain County, Ohio, Kenyon pursued his higher education at Grinnell College and the University of Iowa. Following his university studies, he undertook the traditional path of reading law, completing this preparation in 1891. That same year, he gained admission to the bar and commenced private practice in Fort Dodge, Iowa, a community where he would maintain professional and personal ties for two decades.

Kenyon's early career combined private practice with public service in various capacities. From 1892 to 1896, he served as prosecutor for Webster County, Iowa, gaining experience in criminal law and courtroom advocacy. After this initial prosecutorial role, he returned to private practice in Webster County, working in that capacity from 1897 to 1900 and again from 1902 to 1904. Between these periods of private practice, from 1900 to 1902, he served as a judge of the Iowa District Court for the Eleventh Judicial District, providing him with his first experience on the bench.

His career took a significant turn when he left the state bench to join the legal department of the Illinois Central Railroad, accepting a position with J. F. Duncombe, who was the railroad's Iowa counsel and also Kenyon's father-in-law. When Duncombe died in 1904, Kenyon succeeded him as Iowa counsel for the railroad. His responsibilities expanded considerably in 1908 when he was promoted to serve as general counsel for all of the railroad's lines located north of the Ohio River, a position of substantial responsibility overseeing legal matters across multiple states. This role in corporate law provided him with experience in complex commercial litigation and regulatory matters.

From 1910 to 1911, Kenyon served in the federal executive branch as an assistant to the Attorney General of the United States, gaining exposure to federal legal practice and national policy issues. This position in Washington would prove to be a stepping stone to his subsequent political career.

Federal appellate service

Kenyon's path to the federal appellate bench began with his resignation from the United States Senate on February 24, 1922. On January 31, 1922, President Warren G. Harding, a Republican, nominated him to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit that had been vacated by Judge Walter I. Smith. The Senate confirmed the nomination on the same day it was submitted, and Kenyon received his commission immediately, reflecting the esteem in which his former Senate colleagues held him.

His tenure on the Eighth Circuit lasted approximately eleven years, from 1922 until his death on September 9, 1933. During this period, he participated in the work of a court with jurisdiction over appeals from federal district courts across a multi-state region including Iowa, his home state, as well as other states in the upper Midwest and Great Plains.

In 1926, Kenyon authored what became his most historically significant judicial opinion, the Eighth Circuit's decision in the principal civil case arising from the Teapot Dome scandal. This controversy, which had erupted during the Harding administration and involved the secret leasing of federal oil reserves to private companies, became one of the defining political scandals of the 1920s. The appellate panel, in an opinion written by Kenyon, reversed a federal district court in Wyoming. The circuit court ordered the lower court to cancel the leases held by the Mammoth Oil Company, to demand an accounting of all oil that had been extracted from the Teapot Dome reserve, and issued an injunction prohibiting the company from any further trespassing on United States Government property. This decision represented a significant legal victory for the federal government in its efforts to remedy the consequences of the scandal.

While serving as a federal judge, Kenyon received numerous offers of other positions, both appointive and elective, reflecting his continued prominence in Republican politics despite his judicial role. In January 1923, before President Harding's death later that year, newspapers speculated that Judge Kenyon would emerge as Harding's leading opponent in the 1924 presidential race. At the 1924 Republican National Convention, he was discussed as a potential vice-presidential running mate for Calvin Coolidge and received 172 votes on the first ballot for that position. President Coolidge indicated that Kenyon would be acceptable to him as a running mate, but the convention ultimately selected Charles Dawes instead. Coolidge subsequently offered Kenyon the cabinet position of Secretary of the Navy, but Kenyon declined the appointment, choosing to remain on the bench.

During his judicial service, Kenyon also accepted appointment to serve on a prominent presidential commission. President Herbert Hoover named him to the National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement, commonly known as the Wickersham Commission. This blue-ribbon panel was charged with assessing various aspects of the criminal justice system, including examining the lessons learned from Prohibition enforcement, among other matters. Kenyon served as an active member of this commission while continuing his judicial duties.

Jurisprudence and legacy

Kenyon brought to the federal bench a distinctive background that combined experience in state prosecution, state judicial service, corporate legal practice, federal executive branch service, and more than a decade in the United States Senate. His Senate career had been marked by involvement in major progressive legislation. He had co-sponsored the Clayton Antitrust Act, which strengthened federal antitrust enforcement; the Federal Trade Commission Act, which created a new regulatory agency; and the Child Labor Act, which sought to restrict the employment of children. In 1921, he formed the bipartisan "farm bloc" in the Senate, a coalition that successfully advocated for the passage of several agricultural measures including the Packers and Stockyards Act, regulation of grain futures and futures trading, and the Fordney–McCumber Tariff.

As a senator, Kenyon had also been a supporter of Prohibition and co-authored the Webb–Kenyon Act, legislation designed to strengthen the ability of individual states to enforce their own prohibition laws during the period before the adoption of the Volstead Act and the Eighteenth Amendment. His work on the Wickersham Commission during his judicial tenure represented a continuation of his interest in Prohibition policy, though now from an evaluative rather than legislative perspective.

Kenyon's Senate service had also involved him in major foreign policy debates. On the eve of American entry into World War I, he was among a group of twelve senators who blocked President Woodrow Wilson's armed neutrality bill, which would have granted Wilson authority to arm American merchant vessels. However, when Wilson requested a declaration of war one month later, Kenyon voted in favor of the declaration. Following the Armistice, he became part of the moderate faction known as the "mild reservationists" regarding the proposed League of Nations, senators who were willing to consider United States membership provided the treaty was amended to address specific concerns. When President Wilson refused to accept compromise amendments, Kenyon ultimately opposed American membership in the League.

His judicial service was cut short by his death on September 9, 1933, at the age of 64. His tenure of approximately eleven years on the Eighth Circuit represented only a portion of what might have been a longer judicial career. The combination of his extensive pre-judicial experience and his authorship of the significant Teapot Dome opinion established his place in the history of the federal judiciary during the 1920s and early 1930s.