EDWARD J. DEVITT:

Devitt was born in St. Paul, May 5, 1911, the son of Thomas P. and Ethel (McGuire) Devitt. He attended St. Paul public schools until the death of his father in 1921, at which time the family moved to East Grand Forks, Minnesota. While attending school in St. Paul he was a classmate of Warren Burger and Harry Blackmun, who both later became justices of the U.S. Supreme Court. From 1926 to 1932 he attended St. John's Preparatory School and University (Collegeville, Minnesota) and from 1932 to 1935 he attended the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks where he received his law degree.

His legal career began in 1935 with his election as an East Grand Forks municipal judge (1935-1939). He was later appointed an assistant Minnesota attorney general (1939-1942), a Ramsey County probate judge (1950-1954); and a U.S. district judge (1954-1992).

Devitt was elected to the Fourth Congressional District seat in 1946 and lost it in 1948 to Eugene J. McCarthy. He served as a lieutenant commander to the Seventh Fleet in U.S. Navy intelligence during World War II (1942-1946). Devitt married Marcelle LaRose MacRae of Mandan, North Dakota on April 22, 1939. He died at the age of 80 in St. Paul on March 2, 1992.

Biographical information was taken from the collection.

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The collection documents Devitt's life and career from high school and college days (1920s) to his death in 1992. Biographical information, scrapbooks, correspondence, speeches, published articles, legal opinions, committee records, campaign literature, newspaper clippings, and magazine articles contain information on his political campaigns for the Fourth Congressional District seat (1946-1948), on his congressional career, and his subsequent judicial career (1950-1991). Also included are correspondence, booklets, and newspaper clippings relating to anniversaries of his judicial appointments and birth celebrations (1979-1990), as well as certificates, citations, diplomas, and appointments (1935-1985).

The majority of the collection documents Devitt's professional activities with the American Bar Association and the Judicial Conference of the United States. Sections of particular interest include files regarding Devitt's chairmanship of the ABA's Advisory Committee on Fair Trial-Free Press and files regarding his work with the Judicial Conference concerning judicial standards.

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These records are divided into the following three sections:

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Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Edward J. Devitt Papers. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Accession Information:

Accession number: 14,782

Processing Information:

Processed by: Kathryn A. Johnson, December 1992; Monica Manny Ralston, April 1999

Catalog ID number: 990017300190104294

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Devitt's personal and political papers include biographical information, material related to his 1946 and 1948 congressional campaigns, certificates attesting his judicial appointments, correspondence, photographs, and scrapbooks. Also included within this series are materials related to Devitt's presiding role in the 1961 liquor syndicate trial of Isadore Blumenfeld's Minneapolis Combination.

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Devitt's speech files (1946-1991) document his appearances before many legal, political, religious, and community organizations and contain insights into his personal, theological, political, and judicial opinions. Included are speeches given while Devitt served as a congressman and speeches given while he was a judge. Published articles (1959-1989) and legal opinions (1955-1991) provide a more in-depth look at Devitt's judicial philosophy. Also included are 1979 correspondence concerning an article Devitt wrote which questioned the validity of juries as well as 1987-1989 correspondence concerning the fourth edition of a work which Devitt first co-authored with William C. Mathes in 1965 regarding jury instructions.

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Devitt's professional interests and activities extended beyond Minnesota. Through membership in national professional organizations, Devitt was able to serve on many committees which advanced his interests in judicial reform.

He was an active member of the American Bar Association (ABA), serving on its Bar Admissions Committee (1982-1983) and its Standing Committee on Public Relations (1968-1969). He also chaired the Association's Advisory Committee on Fair Trial-Free Press from 1967-1971. This committee worked with the American Association of Newspaper Editors, the National Association of Broadcasters, and the Radio Television News Directors Association in an attempt to balance courtroom proceedings against unlimited press access. The bulk of the files documenting Devitt's membership with the ABA reflect the work of this committee. A separate file related to the Free Speech Committee of the Minnesota Newspaper Foundation is also included.

Devitt also chaired a number of committees under the Judicial Conference of the United States. These included the Federal Courtroom Facilities and Design Committee (1971-1973), the Bicentennial Committee (1975-1976), and the Committee to Consider Standards for Admission to Practice in Federal Courts (1976-1979). This last committee, more commonly known as the Judicial Standards Committee or the Devitt Committee, attempted to set up uniform standards for lawyers practicing in federal circuit and district courts. Devitt was also a long-term member of the Conference's Judicial Conduct and Disability Committee, formally known as the Committee to Review Circuit Court Conduct and Disability (1982-1991).

Devitt's involvement with each of these committees is well documented within the series. The files are arranged alphabetically by organization name with the respective committees listed thereunder. Included within the committee files are correspondence, meeting minutes, subcommittee files, conference speeches, project files, questionnaires and surveys, manuals, standards and guidelines, reports of congressional hearings, newspaper clippings, and related materials.

Additional correspondence, hearing files, and an article written by Devitt chronicle his advocacy of a six-member jury plan which was intended to be used in certain types of cases and which was eventually upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Also included are materials regarding the Devitt Distinguished Service to Justice Award established in 1982 by West Publishing Company of St. Paul as a yearly event honoring an American judge for distinguished judicial service. These materials include correspondence, programs, newspaper clippings, photographs, and similar materials.

Filed at the end of this series are correspondence with judges in Minnesota and elsewhere. These files detail Devitt's relationship with other judges, particularly with U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren E. Burger and U.S. Appeals Court Judge George E. MacKinnon. The correspondence also includes information on the Historical Society of the United States Courts in the Eighth Judicial Circuit, on Devitt's service on the Judicial Conduct and Disability Committee, and on the Bicentennial Committee. Historical information regarding circuit and district courts in Minnesota are included within this set of correspondence as well as within the files of the Judicial Conference's Bicentennial Committee.

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This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:

American Revolution Bicentennial, 1776-1976.

Catholics -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.

Circuit Courts -- United States.

Court administration -- United States.

District courts -- United States.

Free press and fair trial -- United States.

Freedom of speech -- United States.

Irish Americans -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.

Jury -- United States.

Justice, Administration of -- United States.

Legal opinions -- United States.

Liquor laws -- Minnesota -- Minneapolis -- Criminal provisions.

Mass media -- Censorship -- United States.

Mass media and criminal justice -- United States.

Newspaper court reporting -- United States.

Saint Patrick's Day -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.

Student activities -- Minnesota -- Collegeville.

Place:

Saint Paul (Minn.).

Persons:

Blumenfeld, Isadore, 1900-1981.

Burger, Warren E., 1907-1995.

MacKinnon, George E., 1906-1995.

Organizations:

American Bar Association.

American Society of Newspaper Editors.

Judicial Conference of the United States.

Minnesota Newspaper Foundation.

National Association of Broadcasters.

St. John's Preparatory School (Collegeville, Minn.).

St. John's University (Collegeville, Minn.).

West Publishing Company.

Types of Documentation:

Photographs.

Speeches.

Occupations:

Judges -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.

Lawyers.

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