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.