Henry White Edgerton was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

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WASHINGTON, Feb. 25 — Henry W. Edgerton, a retired Judge from the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and long a defender of civil rights, died Monday at his home here. He was 81 years old.

Appointed to the Appeals Court by President Roosevelt in 1937, Judge Edgerton won a reputation for forceful and articulate dissents from the prevailing opinions of his time. In a 1950 dissent, he favored desegregation of Washington's public schools, an opinion pre dating the Supreme Court's famous Brown vs. Board of Education Desegregation decision of 1954. He was also a strong foe of the late Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, Republican of Wisconsin.

Judge Edgerton was a long time critic of United States foreign policy. While a law professor at Cornell University during World War I he objected to American involvement in the war. His widow, Mrs. Alice Durand Edgerton, said today that "After hearing of the treatment the Irish were receiving from the British at the time, he saw no great difference between the British and the Germans."

After retiring as a full‐time judge in 1962, he agreed to hear cases periodically as a Senior Judge in the Washington Circuit and began writing letters to newspapers and mag azines criticizing American pol icy toward the Soviet Union, which he regarded as too rigid. In recent years, he strongly criticized United States involvement in Vietnam, having called for withdrawal in 1962.

Born in Rush Center, Kan., Judge Edgerton graduated from Cornell University in 1910 and gave the "class oration" at his commencement. He received a law degree from Harvard in 1914 and entered a law firm in St. Paul for a brief period that year.

Judge Edgerton joined the legislative reference division of the Library of Congress in Washington late in 1914, but returned to teach law at Cornell in 1916.

In 1921, he joined the faculty of George Washington University Law School in Washington. Seven years later, he returned to Cornell, where he stayed until President Roosevelt chose him for the Appeals Court in 1937.

Judge Edgerton was Chief Judge of the Washington Circuit Court of Appeals from 1955 until 1958. He remained as Judge in the Circuit until his retirement in 1962.

He held honorary Doctor of Laws degrees from Yale, Howard and George Washington Universities.

He is survived by his widow, a son, John D., of Washington, and a brother, William F., of Chicago.

Judge Edgerton was buried here this morning after private services.

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The following obituary for Judge Henry White Edgerton was published in the The Washington Post on February 25, 1970:

JUDGE H. W. EDGERTON DIES

Retired U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Henry W. Edgerton, long a champion of civil liberties and civil rights who often saw his dissenting opinions become the law of the land, died Monday at his home, 2925 Glover Driveway NW.  He was 81.

Considered a great craftsman of legal writing, Judge Edgerton, although retired since 1962, had continued to sit on cases before the Appellate Court here as late as last summer. He had been in ill health for some time.

He had served as chief judge of the Court of Appeals for three years before resigning from that position on his 70th birthday in October, 1958.

Just last Saturday, Judge Edgerton had received an honorary degree of doctor of laws from George Washington University at the School's winter convocation.  It was accepted for him by his son, John, of Washington.

The citation accompanying the degree summed him up as a judge, teacher and citizen in this way:

'He combines the penetrating insight of a scholar with the jurist's sure knowledge of human affairs in a career extending over more than 50 years of public service. A superb professor of law, he became an equally distinguished judge.  During his many years on the bench… his incisive, analytical ability, coupled with a warm and sympathetic understanding of the human problems of modern times, made him one of the outstanding judges of this century.  He had the courage to stake out new positions on the frontier of an advancing legal system, particularly in civil rights and civil liberties.  His landmark decisions in these areas led the way to later action by the Congress, the President, and the Supreme Court of the United States.'

One of Judge Edgerton's memorable dissents came in 1950 and was a forerunner to the Supreme Court's 1954 school desegregation decisions.  At that time, Judge Edgerton had this to say about the utility of court orders in the social sphere:

'It is sometimes suggested that due process of law cannot require what law cannot enforce.  No such suggestion is relevant here.  When United States courts order integration of District of Columbia public schools, they will be integrated.'

In a 1948 dissent, Judge Edgerton raised one of his many protests against the excesses of some congressional investigating committees.  He said that he would hold that the House Un-American Activities Committee's questions in one case were aimed at exposure rather than legislation and that they abridged freedom of speech.

Judge Edgerton consistently supported appeals at government expense by paupers convicted of crimes but unable to pay attorneys fees and once wrote in an opinion:

'The United States can afford to let poor defendants take criminal appeals that the rich could take.  It cannot afford to do otherwise.'

Born in Rush Center, Kan., Judge Edgerton spent part of his childhood in Washington.  He attended the University of Wisconsin and graduated from Cornell University in 1910.  He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa while a junior at Cornell and had been class orator. He entered Harvard Law School after spending a year in Europe and received his law degree in 1914.  He joined a law firm in St. Paul, Minn., but soon came to Washington to join the staff of the Library of Congress.

Judge Edgerton taught law at Cornell, was a professor of law at George Washington University here and was a professor in the Cornell Law School in 1937 when he was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (now the District of Columbia Circuit).  The author of numerous articles on legal subjects, he also held an honorary doctor of laws degree from Yale University.

His kindness, his courtesy, his integrity and his devotion to justice and human freedom brought him the warm respect of the students he taught, his law clerks and colleagues.

When Judge Edgerton left Cornell Law School, almost every student in the school appeared at a farewell dinner they had arranged for him.  His law clerks paid a similar tribute 20 years later when he was honored at a dinner attended by Supreme Court Justices, judges and lawyers.

His opinions relating to civil liberties were put into book form, entitled 'Freedom in the Balance,' which was edited by Eleanor Bontecou and published by the Cornell University Press.

In addition to his son, Judge Edgerton is survived by his wife, Alice Durand Edgerton, and a brother, William F., of Chicago. A daughter, Ann, died in 1950.

The family requests that expressions of sympathy be in the form of contributions to the Henry White Edgerton Prize Fund at Howard University."