Converted to EAD3 : Encoded Archival Description (EAD), Version 3 : Release: 1.1.1 : Release Date: 2019-12-16. Validating against latest version of schema.
Contact information: https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mss.contact
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm82038737
Collection material in English
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the LC Catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically.
The papers of Wiley Rutledge, Jr., law professor, university administrator, associate justice of the United States Court of Appeals, and associate justice of the Supreme Court, were given to the Library of Congress from 1980 to 1985 by his wife, Annabel Rutledge. Small additions were given to the Library by non-family members from 1950 to 2009. Three small additions were given to the Library by Daniel Rutledge Pollitt, grandson of Rutledge, from 2014 to 2018.
The papers of Wiley Rutledge, Jr., were arranged and described in 1980 by Allan Teichroew. Additions were processed in 1987 by David Mathisen, by Patrick Kerwin in 1999, and by Connie L. Cartledge in 2016 and 2018. The finding aid was updated in 2024 by Maria Farmer as part of a division-wide remediation project by the Inclusive Description Working Group.
Photographs have been transferred to the Library's Prints and Photographs Division where they are identified as part of these papers.
Copyright in the unpublished writings of Wiley Rutledge, Jr., in these papers and in other collections of papers in the custody of the Library of Congress has been dedicated to the public.
The papers of Wiley Rutledge, Jr., are open to research. Researchers are advised to contact the Manuscript Reading Room prior to visiting. Many collections are stored off-site and advance notice is needed to retrieve these items for research use.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container number, Wiley Rutledge, Jr., Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The papers of Wiley Blount Rutledge (1894-1949) span the years 1909-1984, with the bulk of the items concentrated in the period 1935-1951. Rutledge was professor and dean of the University of Iowa College of Law in 1939 when appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Elevated to the Supreme Court in February 1943, he served as associate justice of the high court until his death in 1949. The papers are in English and are organized in the following series: Family Papers, General Correspondence, United States Court of Appeals File, Supreme Court File, Academic File, Speeches and Writings, and Miscellany, 1999 Addition, 2016 Addition, and 2018 Addition.
The papers treat most aspects of Rutledge's public career from 1935 onward but are especially complete for the period of his judicial appointments. The Court of Appeals and Supreme Court files include material Rutledge accumulated for those decisions in which he wrote an opinion or exercised influence. Rutledge kept incoming notes and letters and retained copies of most of his outgoing communications and writings, including intracourt memoranda, working drafts of opinions, case memoranda or certiorari, summaries of lawyers' opinions, and conference proceedings. Although most of this material is in the two court series, important communications about his work as a jurist are also contained in the General Correspondence. Among acquaintances in whom Rutledge confided was Ralph F. Fuchs, a friend from Washington University in St. Louis, where Rutledge taught before moving to Iowa. Other correspondents whose letters appear throughout the collection include Willard Wirtz, a future secretary of labor whom Rutledge had hired while dean at the University of Iowa; Huber O. Croft and Mason Ladd, also from Iowa; and Arthur J. Freund, Luther Ely Smith, and Tyrrell Williams, friends from St. Louis days. A third group of insiders was comprised of a chosen few law clerks: Victor Brudney, W. Howard Mann, John Paul Stevens, and Richard F. Wolfson.
The World War II setting of Rutledge's terms on the federal bench generated numerous
controversial issues documented in various parts of the Supreme Court File. Decided between 1943 and
1949 were more than a dozen free speech and church-state disputes plus landmark cases
concerning search and seizure actions, the right to counsel, and self-incrimination.
Also at issue was the relationship between the scope of military authority and the
inviolability of certain constitutional principles. Rutledge was engaged in the court's
review of the war crimes trial of Japanese General Tomobumi Yamashita (Tomayuki
Yamashita) and the decisions regarding the incarceration of Japanese Americans. His
dissent in the Yamashita judgment drew a particularly strong public response, as did
another sensitive issue, his disagreement with the majority in
Another prominent topic in the Supreme Court File and other series is the legal review of New Deal agencies and their administrative powers. Rutledge's views on the role of the judiciary and a regulated economy, for instance, can be discerned from notes of talks and manuscripts of articles in the Speeches and Writings File. Rutledge was not a prolific writer, but he contributed book reviews to law journals and spoke out on child labor laws, the direction and quality of legal education, and the role of business corporations in American life. A file of particular significance contains a series of special lectures he delivered at the University of Kansas in 1946, one of which was later published as
The Academic File includes notes, clippings, and secondary material Rutledge collected while developing lectures and building a casebook on corporate law as a faculty member at the University of Colorado beginning in 1924. Other subjects concern his administrative functions at the University of Iowa and Washington University in St. Louis and reports he wrote on subjects such as child labor laws and the statewide organization of the Iowa Bar Association. Letters on these and related topics are also contained in the General Correspondence, as are frequent communications with former students and exchanges with fellow legal experts concerning Rutledge's involvement with national law organizations, including the American Bar Association, the Association of American Law Schools, and the Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws.
The Family Papers, though not extensive, include Rutledge's correspondence with his father, Wiley Blount Rutledge, Sr., and with his two half-brothers, Dwight J. and Ivan C. Rutledge. Letters to and from several cousins and correspondence with former Michigan Congressman Seymour Howe Person, a brother-in-law whom Rutledge wrote to about legal as well as family matters, are also present.
The 1999 Addition consists largely of family papers, general correspondence, and Supreme Court case files that complement similar series and files in the main portion of the collection. The miscellany section of the addition includes papers of Edna Lindgreen, Rutledge's former secretary, which contains correspondence with Rutledge and other related material.
The majority of the 2016 Addition is comprised of family papers. The family papers for this addition consist mainly of personal letters between Rutledge and his wife, Annabel. Most of the letters relate to family matters and local news, although they include letters relating to their courtship prior to their marriage in 1917. Letters written by Rutledge in May 1939, describe his first few days as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals and his impressions of some of the judges of that court. A letter in general correspondence from Thomas E. Waggaman, a Supreme Court marshal, writes to Rutledge about Rutledge's reimbursement to attend the funeral of Justice Frank Murphy in 1949. Waggaman also includes details pertaining to the confirmation hearings of Tom C. Clark to fill Murphy's vacancy on the Supreme Court.
The 2018 Addition consists of six docket books pertaining to Rutledge's tenure on the Supreme Court. A docket sheet provides a record of the name and docket number of individual cases and documents the votes by the justices regarding the disposition of the case. The docket books for the October terms 1943-1945 are bound volumes. The docket books for the October terms 1946-1948 are sheets that were filed in large notebooks. Library staff removed the sheets from the notebooks for better preservation. At the front of each volume is an alphabetical index by case title that lists the page number for the case. The majority of the dockets are for appellate cases but original and miscellaneous cases are also included.
Correspondents in the collection include Clay R. Apple, A. B. Frey, Bernard C. Gavit, Guy M. Gillette, Henry Joseph Haskell, Jacob M. Lashly, Edna Lindgreen (his secretary), George W. Norris, Joseph R. O'Meara, Jr., John C. Pryor, Robert L. Stearns, and Carl Wheaton. Among the judges with whom Rutledge served and whose names appear prominently in the papers are Hugo LaFayette Black, Harold H. Burton, William O. Douglas, Henry White Edgerton, Felix Frankfurter, Duncan L. Groner, Robert H. Jackson, Justin Miller, Frank Murphy, Harold M. Stephens, Harlan Fiske Stone, and Fred M. Vinson.
The collection is arranged in nine series:
Correspondence sent and received, biographical items, and miscellaneous material.
Organized into correspondence and subject file groupings and alphabetically therein by name of person or type of material.
Correspondence sent and received and related matter.
Organized alphabetically by name of correspondent, organization, or subject of communication.
Appellate court case files including correspondence sent and received; handwritten, typed, and printed decisions; and arguments, briefs, notes, administrative records and documents, and miscellaneous material.
Organized by year and alphabetically by name of case therein.
Correspondence, applications, lists, legal documents, slip sheets, and miscellaneous administrative matter.
Organized alphabetically by topic or type of material.
Notes, opinions, correspondence, case files, case memoranda, certiorari, legal arguments and briefs, assignment and conference lists, circuit court administrative files, and miscellaneous material.
Organized chronologically by court term and alphabetically by topic or case therein.
Course materials including book notes and clippings; other handwritten, printed, and near print matter used in the compilation of a casebook; and writings, research material, and correspondence relating to university and law school functions and to special bar association or political projects.
Organized alphabetically by type or subject of material.
Handwritten, typed, printed, and near-print copies of speeches and writings, including speech notes and reference material.
Organized alphabetically by title or subject.
Correspondence, lists, medical data, calendars, teacher's grade books, fragmentary notes and jottings, address lists, memorial articles and volumes by others about Rutledge, and miscellaneous clippings, printed matter, and other material.
Organized alphabetically by type or topic of material.
Family papers, correspondence, Supreme Court and United States Court of Appeals case files, and miscellaneous material.
Organized alphabetically by type of material and alphabetically therein.
Family papers, correspondence, and books.
Arranged alphabetically by type of material and therein either alphabetically or chronologically.
Docket books.
Arranged chronologically by Court term.