In this role, he served on multiple emergency fact-finding committees to help settle labor disputes in the steel and railroad industries.
One of the interesting cases before Judge McDonough's court was the 1935 conviction of Secretary of State Milton Welling on the charge of submitting a false salary request.
Before sentencing, the Utah Supreme Court intervened; ultimately, Judge McDonough ordered a new trial, and the Secretary of State was acquitted.
[12][13][14][15][16][17] In 1935, McDonough assured the citizenship of 160 foreign-born class graduates after the requirement of court examination was replaced with earned diplomas.
It was noted in her obituary that during a time when most law firms declined to interview women, then Utah Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger I. McDonough decided she was qualified to clerk for him.
The establishment reversed a decision by Judge AH Elliot holding the act to be in violation of constitutional provisions requiring representation on a basis of population.
Chief Justice McDonough filed the court's sole dissent, primarily based on the Utah Legislature's use of a double ratio in appropriating the Senate.
Of course it could, if the legislature paid no attention to the concededly basic principle leavening the whole of Article IX, and this court stood mute.
But it requires no mathematical acumen to demonstrate that the potential of distortion is infinitely greater if a multiple ratio be used.”[20] LGBT Rights In 1963, Jean Sinclair was tried in Utah's Third District Court for murder in the first degree.
The state argued the motive was Sinclair's unnatural relationship with LaRae Peterson, that she had such an impassioned attachment to her, and held resentment toward the male victim.
McDonough explained, “the issue in the case of the State of Utah v. Jean Sinclair was whether the defendant therein was guilty of murder.
[22] [23][24] In 1946 he was offered an appointment to the International Military Tribunal War Crimes Court (Nuremberg Trials) in Germany, but declined.
[3] On March 15, 1949, President Truman appointed the Wabash Strike Fact Board by Executive Order 10045 Pursuant to Section 10 of the Railway Labor Act.
[25] In 1950, President Truman appointed McDonough to an emergency board to help settle labor disputes and avert a nationwide railroad strike.