Charles H . Fahy Charles Fahy ( August 27 , 1892 – September 17 , 1979 ) served as Solicitor General of the United States and later as a United States federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit . Early life , education , and career . Born in Rome , Georgia , Fahy was the son of Thomas and Sarah ( Jonas ) Fahy . Charles attended the University of Notre Dame and then went to Georgetown University Law School . There he received his LL . B . in 1914 and was admitted to the D . C . bar in the same year . He served the United States in World War I as a naval aviator attached to the British and American forces . Fahy was awarded the Navy Cross . After the war he returned to Washington , D . C . and practiced law until 1924 , before moving his practice to Santa Fe , New Mexico , where he resided until 1933 . While in Sante Fe , Fahy served as the city attorney in 1932 . Executive branch service . In 1933 , Fahy returned to Washington when he was appointed first assistant solicitor to the Department of the Interior . That same year he was appointed as a member of the Petroleum Administrative Board , and then served as its president from 1934 - 1935 . As general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board from 1935 – 1940 , Fahy began his career in Supreme Court litigation on behalf of labor rights . Upon the enactment of the Wagner Act in 1935 , Fahy , on behalf of the NLRB , often appeared in front of both Houses of Congress to offer testimony and litigated cases in the Supreme Court brought against the government . By the time he was appointed assistant solicitor general in 1940 , Fahy had already appeared eighteen times in front of the Supreme Court , where his arguments were wholly sustained sixteen times and partially upheld twice . Fahy was appointed Solicitor General by President Franklin D . Roosevelt on November 1 , 1941 . While Solicitor General , Fahy continued to advocate for worker ' s labor rights , and was involved in cases regarding the constitutionality of wiretapping and the citizenship of American Communists . Fahy served as Solicitor General until 1945 , after having argued more than 70 cases in front of the Supreme Court before being called upon by General Dwight D . Eisenhower to serve as director of the legal division of the U . S . Group Control Council in Germany in the aftermath of World War II . After returning from his tour of duty in Germany , Fahy became the Legal Adviser of the Department of State . He was also a member of the U . S . Legal Committee of the General Assembly of the United Nations , held in New York City in 1946 . Korematsu v . United States . Fahy successfully argued the landmark case of Korematsu v . United States , in which the Supreme Court validated the constitutionality of Executive Order 9066 , forcing the relocation of Japanese - Americans into internment camps . In 1983 , the U . S . District Court in San Francisco vacated this ruling after reviewing evidence that Fahy deliberately suppressed information indicating Japanese - Americans were no threat to national security . In 2011 , Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal formally acknowledged Fahy ' s misconduct in the case . Federal judicial service . Fahy returned to private practice in 1947 , but was again called to serve the federal government as chairman of the President ' s Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunities in Armed Forces , from 1948 - 1950 . On October 21 , 1949 , Fahy received a recess appointment from Harry S Truman to a new seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the D . C . Circuit created by 63 Stat . 493 . Formally nominated on January 5 , 1950 , Fahy was confirmed by the United States Senate on April 4 , 1950 , and received his commission on April 7 , 1950 . He assumed senior status on April 17 , 1967 , and served in that capacity until his death . Death and commemoration . Fahy was the recipient of a number of awards , including the Navy Cross ( 1917 ) , a medal for military merit ( 1946 ) , the Robert S . Abbott Memorial Award ( 1951 ) , John Carroll Award from the Georgetown University Member Alumni ( 1953 ) , and the D . C . Distinguished Service Award ( 1969 ) . Charles Fahy died on September 17 , 1979 , at the age of 87 in Washington , D . C . He was survived by his wife Mary Agnes Lane , and children Charles ( Dom Thomas Fahy O . S . B . ) , Anne Marie ( Sheehan ) , Sarah Agnes ( Sister Sarah Fahy S . N . D . ) , and Mary Agnes ( Johnson ) . The Washington Post wrote this editorial at his death ( published Sept . 19 , 1979 and written by Meg Greenfield ) : Of those who have devoted their lives to public service , none gave more and asked less in return than Charles Fahy , who died Monday night . A quiet , unassuming , self - effacing man , Judge Fahy was easily mistaken for the kind of person who is content to stand aside and watch the world go by . But he was something completely different . That shy manner cloaked an intellect so powerful that his imprint has been fixed on the law for years to come . His intellect was matched by his compassion . Over the years , Mr . Fahy was a naval aviator in World War I , the first general counsel of the NLRB , solicitor general , a member of the American delegation to the San Francisco conference and later to the United Nations , legal adviser to the military governor of Germany , chairman of President Truman ' s committee to eliminate discrimination from the armed forces and , after 1949 , a judge on the United States Court of Appeals . Of all the things he did in these and other jobs , Judge Fahy was proudest of two . One was his acknowledged large role in desegregating the military . The other was his dissent , soon after he became a judge , in the Thompson restaurant case . That dissent , like many others he wrote in later years , became the basis for a Supreme Court opinion . But this one was the basis for a unanimous decision that struck down segregation in the District of Columbia ' s restaurants , theaters , and other public places . Judge David L . Bazelon has called Charles Fahy " the conscience of our court . " Judge Skelly Wright says he was a " gentle man who was loved by everybody who knew him . " Both are right . Judge Fahy had no enemies , even among those with whom he disagreed so wholeheartedly during those turbulent years of the 1950s and 1960s when his was a strong voice on the Court of Appeals on behalf of civil rights , individual liberties and personal freedom . These words of the late J . Warren Madden , chief judge of the Court of Claims for many years , sum up his life : " Charles Fahy ' s part in the making of the law has not , we think , been surpassed by any lawyer of his generation . . . This unpretentious human being could , but would not , point to many fundamental features in the present day structure of American constitutional law and say , ' The work of my hand is there . ' "