Scope and Content Note
The papers of Harry Thomas Edwards (1940- ) span the years 1940-2012, with the majority of material concentrated between 1980 to 2010. The collection documents chiefly Edwards's career as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1980 to 2010 and his service as chief judge of that court from 1994 to 2001. Also present are papers relating to his work as a labor arbitrator, his endeavors as part of a committee for the National Academy of Sciences identifying deficiencies in the nation's forensic science system, and his career as a professor at Harvard Law School at Cambridge, Mass., and the University of Michigan Law School at Ann Arbor, Mich. The collection also includes family papers and files relating to Edwards's school and childhood. The papers are in English and are organized into seven series: Correspondence, United States Court of Appeals File, Speech and Engagement File, Writings File, Miscellany, Classified, and Digital Files.
The Correspondence series, 1980-2010, documents Edwards's professional career and personal interests. The correspondence is organized into two categories: general and personal. The general correspondence makes up the majority of the correspondence and relates chiefly to administrative matters relating to Edwards duties as a judge and requests for him to speak or write articles for legal publications. The general correspondence also documents Edwards's teaching activities at various law schools and contains a few letters from his students. The personal correspondence pertains to family matters and reflects his interests in golf and travel.
The United States Court of Appeals File, 1976-2010, is the largest series in the collection. It is organized into three subseries: Case File, Chief Judge File, and Office File. The Case File is arranged chronologically by year and therein by case number. Cases are filed by date of last court action. The majority of the cases pertain to administrative law and relate to the rule making of federal independent agencies. Cases heard by the court range from environmental law, civil rights, antitrust matters, labor rights, freedom of speech, separation of powers, and criminal cases. As chief judge of the court of appeals, Edwards presided over the Microsoft anti-trust case (United States v. Microsoft Corp.). It is one of the largest cases in the subseries and the files document the efforts of Edwards and his judicial colleagues in writing a complex and carefully worded opinion that overturned the federal district court's ruling to break up the company. Ultimately a settlement was reached between the company and the Department of Justice near the end of 2001.
Other prominent cases in which Edwards participated include the controversy over the release of the tape about the space shuttle Challenger disaster (New York Times Co. v. National Aeronautics and Space Administration), the "don't-ask-don't tell" military regulation case (Steffan v. Perry), a book review libel case (Moldea v. New York Times), and a change in the exemption for intelligence sources and methods of the Freedom of Information Act (Sims v. Central Intelligence Agency). Also included in the Case File is a Georgia voting rights case (Busbee v. Smith) in which Edwards served as a panel member for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
The Chief Judge File subseries chronicles Edwards's tenure as chief judge of the court of appeals from 1994 to 2001. During his stint as chief judge, Edwards was credited with fostering greater collegiality among his colleagues on the court. The Chief Judge File documents Edwards's implementation of many computer technology initiatives that made the court operate more efficiently, a reorganization of the Clerk's Office and Legal Division, and his management of the construction of an annex to the court of appeals courthouse. He also established and wrote a monthly staff newsletter, "The Circuit Writer." It included information about administrative changes, recent court decisions, and personal events such as staff birthdays.
The Office File subseries chronicles Edwards's administrative and professional duties in particular his work with the Automation Committee, his activities with judicial conferences, and periodic reunions of Edwards and his law clerks. The Office File includes some legal cases such as the miscellaneous motion cases that record the panel rulings of the judges about various motions. Also represented in the Office File are miscellaneous cases; these cases were of special interest to Edwards, but he did not serve as a panel member for them.
The Speech and Engagement File documents primarily Edwards's attendance at events to give a speech, accept an award, or serve as a panel moderator. The files include Edwards's speeches and drafts of speeches, background information, and scheduling itineraries and related material. Many of Edwards speeches later became articles which are filed in the Writings File.
The Writings File is comprised mainly of draft articles by Edwards and research material relating to the articles. Topics featured are dispute resolution, labor arbitration, the legal profession, collegiality and judicial decision making, and legal education. The largest number of files pertain to Edwards's article entitled "The Journey from Brown v. Board of Education to Grutter v. Bollinger: From Racial Assimilation to Diversity," published in 2004 in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision. The volumes in the Writings File contain chiefly published versions of Edwards's articles, although they include a few writings that were not published and a few speeches. In the front of each volume is a list of the articles bound in that volume. The Library received no files relating to any books written by Edwards.
The Miscellany series consists chiefly of files pertaining to Edwards work as part of a committee for the National Academy of Sciences that produced a report entitled "Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward." The report pointed out weaknesses in the forensic science system and made suggestions for improvement. The Miscellany series includes family papers, papers relating to his school and childhood years, and papers pertaining to his appointment to the Court of Appeals. The biographical files include a bound volume, dated 2012, of articles by Edwards, oral histories with him, and other autobiographical material documenting his life as an African-American lawyer and judge. Also represented are a few files relating to his teaching career at Harvard Law School and the University of Michigan Law School and papers about airline arbitration cases in which he served as arbitrator.
The Digital Files range from 1994 to 2012, with the majority concentrated from the years 1994 to 2004. They are arranged into two subseries: Set A and Set B. The Set A subseries relates mainly to two cases: United States v. Microsoft Corp. and Massachusetts v. Microsoft Corp. These files include text files and scans of briefs, exhibits, antitrust research material, and transcripts of court records and testimonies. The Set A files were extracted from optical disks and 3.5" floppy disks. The Set B subseries contains video files of interviews with Edwards and a video of his portrait ceremony for the court of appeals. The files were extracted from optical disks. Set B files are from storage media received independent of the paper files.