Earl C. Michener

Earl Cory Michener (November 30, 1876 – July 4, 1957) was a politician from the U.S. state of Michigan.

Michener had German ancestry. He was born near Attica in Seneca County, Ohio. He moved with his parents to Adrian, Michigan in 1889 and attended the public schools there. During the Spanish–American War, he served in the U.S. Army as a private in Company B, Thirty-first Regiment, Michigan Volunteer Infantry, from April 26, 1898 to May 17, 1899. He studied law at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1901 and 1902, and graduated from the law department of Columbian University (now George Washington University), Washington, D.C., in 1903 where he was a member of Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity. He was admitted to the bar (law) the same year and commenced practice in Adrian. He served as assistant prosecuting attorney for Lenawee County from 1907 to 1910 and prosecuting attorney from 1911 to 1914. In 1918, Michener defeated incumbent Democrat Samuel W. Beakes to be elected as a Republican from Michigan's 2nd congressional district to the 69th United States Congress. He was subsequently re-elected to the following six Congresses, serving from March 4, 1919 to March 3, 1933. In 1926, he was one of the managers appointed by the House of Representatives to conduct the impeachment proceedings against George W. English, judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Illinois.

Michener was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1932, losing to Democrat John C. Lehr. Two years later he defeated Lehr, to be elected to 74th Congress and was subsequently re-elected to the seven succeeding Congresses, serving from January 3, 1935 to January 3, 1951. He served as chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary in the 80th Congress, and introduced the resolution that ultimately became the Twenty-second Amendment. He was not a candidate for re-election in 1950.

Earl C. Michener maintained law offices in Adrian, until his death there. He was interred in Oakwood Cemetery.