Edward Clayton Eicher (December 16, 1878 – November 30, 1944) was a United States representative from Iowa, federal securities regulator and Chief Justice of the District Court of the United States for the District of Columbia. He was considered a consummate New Deal liberal. Early life and education Eicher was born on a farm near the unincorporated town of Noble, Iowa. His father, Benjamin Eicher, was a Mennonite bishop. His older brother, H. M. Eicher, was an assistant district attorney during the administration of President Grover Cleveland. Eicher attended public schools, Washington Academy in Washington, Iowa, and Morgan Park Academy in Morgan Park, Chicago, Illinois. In 1904 he graduated from the University of Chicago with a Bachelor of Philosophy degree. He studied law at the University of Chicago Law School. Career Eicher was admitted to the bar in 1906 and briefly practiced in Washington, Iowa. He returned to the University of Chicago to serve as its assistant registrar. In 1909, he returned to Burlington, Iowa and served as an assistant attorney for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad until 1918. In 1918, he resumed private practice as a partner in Livingston and Eicher in Washington, Iowa. U.S. House of Representatives Eicher was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1932. In 1932, Eicher was elected as a Democrat to the United States House of Representatives from Iowa's 1st congressional district. Twice re-elected, he served from March 4, 1933, until December 2, 1938. He had withdrawn from the 1938 race for the Democratic nomination for his own seat. When his congressional career ended, Time magazine described him as "a wheelhorse in a pasture of mavericks". Securities and Exchange Commission As his final congressional term ended, Roosevelt appointed Eicher to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. He was a member of the SEC from 1938 to 1942, serving as chair between 1941 and 1942. Federal judicial service New Dealers inside the Roosevelt Administration supported Eicher's wish to be chosen to fill one of two new seats on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, but Iowa Senator Guy M. Gillette, who resented Eicher and Roosevelt for their unsuccessful efforts to purge him from Congress in 1938, stood in the way. Instead, no Iowan received either judgeship. Eicher was nominated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on December 30, 1941, to the Chief Justice seat on the District Court