Charles Fahy

A Register of His Papers in the Library of Congress

Prepared by Grover Batts
Revised and expanded by Connie L. Cartledge with the assistance of Michael W. Giese

Manuscript Division, Library of Congress

Washington, D.C.

2004

Contact information: http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/mss/address.html

Finding aid encoded by Library of Congress
Manuscript Division, 2004

2004-07-02 converted from EAD 1.0 to EAD 2002

Table of Contents

Collection Summary

Selected Search Terms

Names:

Subjects:

Occupations:

Administrative Information

Provenance:

Processing History:

Transfers:

Copyright Status:

Preferred Citation:

Biographical Note

Scope and Content Note

Organization of the Papers

Description of Series

Container List

Appendix: Legal Abbreviations

Collection Summary

Selected Search Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Library's online catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically therein.

Administrative Information

The papers of Charles Fahy, jurist, lawyer, solicitor general, and delegate to the United Nations, were given to the Library of Congress by Fahy. The first group of manuscripts was received in 1967, with additional papers given through 1977. Gifts of material related to Fahy were received from his sister, Sister Peter Claver, from 1984 to 1986.

The papers of Charles Fahy were arranged and described in 1983. Additional material received from 1984 to 1986 was incorporated into the collection in 1999. The finding aid was revised in 2004.

An audiotape has been transferred to the Library's Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division where it is identified as part of these papers.

Copyright in the unpublished writings of Charles Fahy in these papers and in other collections of papers in the custody of the Library of Congress has been dedicated to the public.

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container number, Charles Fahy Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Biographical Note

Scope and Content Note

The papers of Charles Fahy (1892-1979) span the years 1857-1985, with the bulk of the items concentrated in the period 1942-1975. The collection consists of the following series: Diaries; Family Correspondence; General Correspondence; Court of Appeals File; Subject File; Speeches, Writings, and Related Material; Miscellany; and Addition.

Fahy's papers include documents from the earliest phase of his career, such as a flight log book, official records, and several pages describing experiences during his service as a naval aviator in World War I. There are also diary entries for the years 1931-1933 when he practiced law in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Included in the General Correspondence are letters from numerous political and judicial figures associated with the administrations of presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson. Correspondents represented by extensive groups of letters include Felix Frankfurter, Theodore Martin Hesburgh, Philip Levy, Joseph O'Meara, Simon Ernest Sobeloff, and Harry S. Truman.

The bulk of Fahy's papers consists of the Court of Appeals series. Covering the years 1949-1976, this series contains majority, dissenting, or concurring opinions written by Fahy while a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Among the more notable cases for which Fahy wrote the majority opinion are Shachtman v. Dulles, 1955, in which it was decided that the government may not arbitrarily deprive Americans of the right to travel abroad; Easter v. District of Columbia, 1966, which determined that chronic alcoholics cannot be jailed as criminals; Hobson v. Hansen, 1967, which prohibited the selection of school board members for the District of Columbia by judges of the United States District Court; and Hoffman v. United States, 1971, which reversed the conviction of Hoffman for defiling the American flag.

The Subject File reveals Fahy's activity in behalf of judicial groups such as the American Bar Association and Bar Association of the District of Columbia and religious organizations such as the Catholic Association for International Peace, Loyola Retreat House, and the Washington League of Laymen Retreatants. Numerous manuscripts relate to his continuing association with Georgetown University and the University of Notre Dame. A large file concerns the work of the Ferguson Commission which established policies for the decartelization of German industry after World War II. Although Fahy did not accompany the group to Germany, he acted as counsel for the commission.

Another group of papers, made up of correspondence and lectures, relates to the Salzburg Seminar in American Studies. Fahy participated in legal seminars for this organization in 1963 and 1966. Of interest also is a subject file concerning Ziang Sun Wan, a Chinese student sentenced to death for the murder in 1919 of three members of a Chinese educational mission in Washington. Largely through Fahy's efforts, Wan's conviction was reversed by the Supreme Court on the grounds that his confession had been obtained from him involuntarily by the police. A few manuscripts concern Fahy's work as chairman of President Truman's Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services and others dealing with his participation in President Franklin D. Roosevelt's commission to London in 1941 to negotiate terms for the exchange of United States naval destroyers for the use of air and naval facilities in British transatlantic territories.

Also in the collection are a small group of speeches, radio broadcasts, articles, and book reviews, as well as miscellaneous items consisting of biographical information, invitations, memoranda and notes, and name and address files.

The Addition includes correspondence, photographs, and the naturalization papers of Thomas Fahy, Charles Fahy's father. The majority of the items pertain to family history and reminiscences. One of the reminiscences and a photograph relate to the death of Ellen Axson Wilson.

Most of Fahy's papers prior to his appointment to the United States Court of Appeals are located in other repositories. Papers relating to his work on the Committee on Equality of Treatment in the Armed Services are in the Truman Library at Independence, Missouri; those for the period 1933-1949 are housed in the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library at Hyde Park, New York. A list of the latter group of papers titled “Rough Notes of the Files and Papers of Charles Fahy taken for the Roosevelt Hyde Park Library, 23 Nov. 1959” is available in the Manuscript Division Reading Room.

Organization of the Papers

The collection is arranged in eight series:

• Diaries, 1918-1949
• Family Correspondence, 1917-1965
• General Correspondence, 1933-1967
• Court of Appeals File, 1949-1976
• Subject File, 1917-1976
• Speeches, Writings, and Related Material, 1938-1966, n.d.
• Miscellany, 1934-1967
• Addition, 1857-1985

Description of Series

Container List