Fahy, Charles, 1892-1979

Charles Fahy (1892-1979) was born in Rome, Georgia. A graduate of local schools, he later attended the University of Notre Dame and the Georgetown University School of Law, receiving an L.L.B. in 1914. He was admitted to the bar in Washington, D.C., and practiced law there for ten years. Interrupting his practice during World War I, he served as a Navy pilot and was awarded the Naval Cross for distinguished and heroic service. In 1924, Fahy moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico for reasons of health, remaining there until April 1933 when he became First Assistant Solicitor of the Department of the Interior, marking the beginning of Fahy''s federal service. While with the Department of the Interior, he also served as Vice-Chairman, and later Chairman, of the Petroleum Administrative Board, administering the Petroleum Code under the National Recovery Administration. In September 1935, he was appointed General Counsel of the newly established National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), a position he held for the next five years. At this time, Mr. Fahy was involved, along with the Solicitor General, in the preparation and presentation of the government''s argument in five Supreme Court test cases involving the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Act. He also argued a number of other cases involving the NLRB before the Supreme Court. Fahy began work at the Department of Justice in October 1940 as Assistant Solicitor General. He succeeded Francis Biddle as Solicitor General when Biddle was appointed Attorney General in November 1941. That same winter, he traveled to London as a member of Roosevelt''s Base Lease Commission negotiating terms of the United States'' agreement with Great Britain leasing military and air bases in Newfoundland, Bermuda, the Caribbean, and South America. As Solicitor General, Fahy also served as a member of the Civil Service Board of Legal Examiners which established standards for lawyers entering government service. Fahy''s principal responsibility as Solicitor General, however, was the preparation of all government cases in the Supreme Court of the United States. He personally argued many of the government''s cases before the Court, including cases arising from the wartime relocation of Japanese citizens on the West Coast, the deportation proceedings against Harry Bridges, the Cramer treason case, the denaturalization of William Schneiderman (argued against Wendell Willkie), and cases involving the validity of wartime price controls. Resigning as Solicitor in July 1945, Fahy was appointed Legal Adviser and Director of the Legal Division of the United States Military Government of Germany. He remained in Germany until June of 1946 when he was named Legal Adviser to the Department of State, a position he held little more than a year. Fahy also was involved in the formation of the United Nations. In April 1945 he served as an adviser to the International Committee of Jurists, meeting in Washington to revise the statute of the World Court. Later that same year he was an adviser to the United States delegation to the United Nations Conference on International Organization in San Francisco. In 1946 and 1947 he was the U.S. member of the Legal Committee of the General Assembly, and also served as an Alternate Representative on the United States Delegation to the General Assembly in 1947 and 1949. In 1948, Harry S. Truman appointed Fahy as Chairman of the President''s Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Forces. He also held the post of Chairman of the Personnel Security Review Board of the Atomic Energy Commission in 1949 and 1950. In October 1949, President Truman appointed Fahy as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit.

Jurist, lawyer, U.S. solicitor general, and U.S. delegate to the United Nations.

Attorney, World War I naval aviator, chairman of the United States Petroleum Administrative Board, 1933-1935, general counsel National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), 1935-1940, Solicitor General of the United States, 1941-1945, advisor to U.S. delegations to United Nations General Assembly, 1946, chairman President's Committee on General Assembly, 1946, chairman President's Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in Armed Services, 1948-1950, and judge, U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, 1949-1967.

Lawyer; judge.

Lawyer.

Fahy began his long career in federal service in 1933 serving with the National Labor Relations Board, Justice Department, and the Armed Forces. Fahy was also involved in the formation of the United Nations.

Biographical Note