Scope and Content Note
The papers of Irving Robert Kaufman (1910-1992) span the years 1934-1992 with the vast bulk of material dating after 1949, when Kaufman was appointed to the federal judiciary. The papers document his professional activities while serving for over forty years as a federal judge, first as a district judge and then as an appellate judge for the second circuit. Included are speeches and writings, correspondence, scrapbooks, material from American Bar Association committees that Kaufman chaired or served on, items from the Juvenile Justice Standards Project which he chaired, conference materials, court papers, and subject files. Personal and family papers are few.
The first two series are comprised of papers from Kaufman's two judgeships: the Southern District of New York (1949-1961) and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals (1961-1992). Each series is divided into two subseries: Court Papers and Office Files. The Court Papers from the Southern District of New York include transcripts of testimony, charges to juries, opinions, sentences, and appeals. Fourteen of Kaufman's district court cases appear in the Case Files, including two of his most famous and controversial cases: United States v. Rosenberg (1951 espionage trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg) and United States v. Bonanno (1959 trial of reputed gangsters who had met in Apalachin, New York). Materials related to these and other cases are also in the scrapbooks, the final series in the papers. Additional material concerning United States v. Rosenberg is under the case name in a Subject File . The Office Files for the Southern District of New York are quite small and consist of material from professional organizations, committees, conferences, and seminars. A collection of speeches, mostly written by others and used as a reference file by Kaufman, relate in large part to communism.
The Court Papers of the second series, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals , are very few. The two case files present are composed primarily of memoranda between the judges. Also included are affirmances, dockets, and opinions. The extensive Office Files subseries for the Court of Appeals is comprised of Kaufman's papers from American Bar Association committees, the Juvenile Justice Standards Program, professional organizations, conferences and seminars, materials concerning the operation of the courthouse and the courts of the second circuit, reference papers, and correspondence with other judges. There is substantial correspondence between Kaufman and Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren E. Burger and Justice Tom C. Clark.
The Subject File contains most of Kaufman's correspondence with various individuals. Substantial correspondence is present between Kaufman and his longtime friend Simon H. Rifkind. There are also files on the Harvard Law School fellowship named in Kaufman's honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom bestowed on Kaufman, several law schools, news clippings, nonprofessional organizations, and topics of interest to Kaufman, such as drug abuse and cameras in the courtroom.
Kaufman's prolific writing was aided by his law clerks, as memoranda to them indicate. He published widely and delivered many speeches. The Speeches and Writings series has been split into several chronologically arranged sections: articles, book reviews, letters to the editor, research material, and speeches. Correspondence with publishers, readers, or event organizers is often included.
The final series is a set of three scrapbooks dating from 1951 to 1970. The books are filled with news clippings, most dating from Kaufman's service on the district court. The first volume and part of the second are devoted to the Rosenbergs' trial, appeals, and execution. With the help of a clipping service, Kaufman assembled items from many diverse sources. Other cases highlighted in the scrapbooks are United States v. Bonanno and Taylor v. Board of Education, the 1961 school desegregation case from New Rochelle, New York.