James Harry Covington (May 3, 1870 – February 4, 1942) was a United States representative from Maryland and chief justice of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia.

[1] Covington was well regarded by President Wilson, who in 1917 gave him charge of an investigation of the radical trade union the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).

[3] The investigation lasted several weeks and preceded coordinated mass raids by the United States Department of Justice against the IWW on September 5, 1917.

[4] Nine decades later Covington & Burling remained the oldest law firm in Washington, D.C., maintaining a staff of more than 1,000 attorneys and operating regional offices in New York, Los Angeles, Palo Alto, and San Francisco as well as international offices in the United Kingdom, China, Belgium, South Korea, Germany, South Africa and Dubai.

[4] Covington served as Worthy Grand Master on the Supreme Executive Committee of the Kappa Sigma fraternity from 1892 to 1894.