Samuel Ray Cummings

American judge (born 1944)

Samuel Ray Cummings

Senior Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas
Incumbent
Assumed office December 31, 2014
Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas
In office December 9, 1987 – December 31, 2014
Appointed by	Ronald Reagan
Preceded by	Halbert Owen Woodward
Succeeded by	James Wesley Hendrix

Personal details
Born	Samuel Ray Commings (1944-10-18) October 18, 1944 (age 79) Lubbock, Texas
Education	Texas Tech University (B.B.A.) Baylor Law School (J.D.)

Samuel Ray Cummings (born October 18, 1944)^[1] is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

Education and career

Born in Lubbock, Texas, Cummings received a Bachelor of Business Administration from Texas Tech University in 1967 and a Juris Doctor from Baylor Law School in 1970. He was in private practice in Amarillo, Texas from 1970 to 1987.^[2]

Federal judicial service

On July 31, 1987, Cummings was nominated by President Ronald Reagan to a seat on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas vacated by Judge Halbert Owen Woodward. Cummings was confirmed by the United States Senate on December 8, 1987, and received his commission on December 9, 1987. He assumed senior status on December 31, 2014.^[2]

Notable cases

On March 1, 2001, Cummings issued an opinion in Tannahill v. Lockney I.S.D., which stated that it is a violation of the Fourth Amendment for school districts to have a mandatory whole school drug testing policy.^{[citation needed]}

On November 16, 2016, Cummings issued a permanent nationwide injunction blocking President Barack Obama's "Persuader Rule", finding, that its attempt to require an employer's attorney to publicly disclose advise provided to persuade against unionization violated the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.^[3]

References

^ Confirmation Hearings on Federal Appointments: Hearings before the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, One Hundredth Congress, First Session, Part 4. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1989. p. 631.
^ ^a ^b "Cummings, Samuel Ray - Federal Judicial Center". www.fjc.gov.
^ Dubé, Lawrence E. "DOL Persuader Rule Blocked by Federal Judge". Bloomberg BNA Daily Labor Report. Retrieved 20 November 2016.

Sources

Samuel Ray Cummings at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a publication of the Federal Judicial Center.

Legal offices
Preceded by Halbert Owen Woodward	Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas 1987–2014	Succeeded by James Wesley Hendrix