Scope and Content Note
The papers of John Garrett Penn (1932-2007) span the years 1918-2007 with the bulk of the material dating from 1971 to 1999. The majority of the papers document Penn's career as a judge for the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, 1970-1979, and the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, 1979-2007. The papers are in English and are organized into the following series: Correspondence, Superior Court File, United States District Court File, and Miscellany.
The Correspondence, 1979-2007, consists primarily of incoming letters, memoranda, postcards, and email to Penn from colleagues, friends, family, court staff, and the public. Most of the correspondence relates to Penn's activities as a superior court judge and a federal district court judge.
The Superior Court File, 1970-1979, chronicles Penn's service as a judge for the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. The bulk of the series is comprised of bench books and a file of orders, opinions, and other rulings of the local court. The bench books contain Penn's handwritten notes about the cases that came before him. Files in the orders, opinions, and other rulings document his judgments on a variety of issues including civil, criminal, family, and tax matters. The series also includes substantive files pertaining to two cases, Kelly v. District of Columbia (property tax case) and Robert J. Sherman (a medical malpractice abortion case).
The files in United States District Court File, 1918-2007, document Penn's tenure on that court from 1979-2007, and his service as chief judge from 1992 to 1997. The United States District Court File is arranged into four groups: bench books, cases, office file, and opinions, orders, and other rulings. The majority of the district court papers relate to a few cases. The largest amount of material pertains to Griffin v United States, the suit by Richard Nixon's estate to recover the value of White House records taken by the federal government after the Watergate Affair. Other substantive files feature the ABSCAM case (United States v. Jenrette), the political corruption case of John W. Jenrette, and cases brought by the victims of the Reagan assassination to recover damages from John Hinckley and gun manufacturers. Penn's handwritten notes about cases he heard from the bench are documented in his bench books, including the cases referenced above.
The office files in the United States District Court File relate to Penn's administrative and professional duties as a district judge. The majority of the office files chronicle his activities with the Judicial Conference of the District of Columbia Circuit and the Judicial Conference of the United States. Files in the orders, opinions, and other rulings are comprised of a chronological file documenting Penn's findings on a variety of issues including civil and criminal matters falling under federal jurisdiction and originating in the District of Columbia.
The Miscellany series, 1954-2006, includes notebooks from Penn's tenure as a law student at the Boston University School of Law and his participation at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. Also represented in this series are some of Penn's speeches located in the speech and engagement files. In a speech for Black History Month in February 1993, Penn discusses the impact that Thurgood Marshall had on him and the civil rights movement.