Tuesday, July 13, 2021

Federal Judges' Papers at the Library of Congress

Prettyman Courthouse (Highsmith)

Over at In Custodia Legis, Ryan Reft, a historian of the modern United States focusing on domestic policy and law in the Manuscript Division at the Library of Congress, has a post on his and Senior Archives Specialist Connie L. Cartledge's new and invaluable guide to the Division’s collections of the papers of judges who served on Article III courts below the Supreme Court of the United States.  The holdings on the appellate judges of the DC Circuit are particularly strong, including the papers of Robert Bork, Henry Edgerton, Harry Edwards, Charles Fahy, RBG, Harold Leventhal, Carl McGowan, E. Barrett Prettyman, Wiley Rutledge, Harold M. Stephens, David Tatel, Skelly Wright, each of whose careers the guide nicely synopsizes.  As the guide notes, the papers are valuable for topics far beyond the strictly judicial or legal.

--Dan Ernst