William J. Hughes
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William John "Bill" Hughes (born October 17, 1932) is an American Democratic Party politician from New Jersey. He represented New Jersey's 2nd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives for 20 years.
Hughes was born in Salem, New Jersey. A graduate of Rutgers University, Hughes earned an (A.B. in 1955. He received his Juris Doctor in 1958 from Rutgers School of Law - Newark . In 1959, Hughes opened a private law practice in Ocean City, New Jersey. He served as town solicitor for Upper Township, New Jersey from 1959 to 1961. Hughes lost his first electoral bid for Congress in 1970, but ran again and won in 1974.
As a congressman, he managed the impeachment proceedings against District Court Judge Harry E. Claiborne of Nevada in 1986. He served ten consecutive terms of office before retiring from Congress when he was appointed United States Ambassador to Panama (1995–1998). Currently, he is once again practicing law in Ocean City.
Congressman Hughes was also sponsor of an amendment (H.AMDT.777) to H.R.4332, the McClure-Volkmer Act if 1986 that prohibited ordinary citizens from possessing fully-automatic firearms manufactured after May 19, 1986. Despite the ATF having earlier informed the House Subcommittee on Crime that "Registered machineguns which are involved in crimes are so minimal [sic] so as not to be considered a law enforcement problem", Congressman Hughes raised the amendment with only minutes left in the debate time allotted under the rule. It passed on a rather irregular voice vote.
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| Preceded by Charles W. Sandman, Jr. |
U.S. House of Representatives 2nd District of New Jersey 1975–1995 |
Succeeded by Frank A. LoBiondo |
