Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

Attorney; judge of the 14th Judicial Circuit of Michigan (1967-1970); United States District Judge for the Western District of Michigan (1971-1973); judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (1974-2002). Case files, administrative files, and subject files relating to his judicial and other professional responsibilities; also memoirs of his career and letters written while serving in the military during World War II.

The Albert J. Engel papers consist of case files, miscellaneous administrative files, and subject files relating to his judicial and other professional responsibilities as a judge of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan (1971-1974) and as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (1974-2002). Case files for each court make up the bulk of the collection. The files represent a selection based largely upon the importance of the issue or issues represented within the case, the significance of the case in the judgment of Judge Engel, and whether Judge Engel wrote the opinion, dissent, or concurrence. Important to understanding the cases are individual memoranda written by Judge Engel (and included in box 15) of his assessment of the cases that he heard.

In 2006, the library received Judge Engel's memoirs of his life and career together with photocopies of the letters that he wrote home during the Second World War, 1944-1945.

Kalamazoo, Michigan, attorney; U. S. District Judge, 1954-1970, in the Western District, Michigan; judge U. S. Court of Appeals, 6th Circuit, 1971-1973. Case docket sheets, judges' case files, unpublished opinions, judges' memoranda, Court of Appeals panel reports, Court of Appeals Circuit Council reports; cases relate in part to school desegregation, Indian treaty rights, labor relations, and questions of civil liberties.

Judge William Wallace Kent's papers document his activities as a Federal Judge. The legal papers in the collection cover the years 1954 to 1973 and include a wide range of documents and records including Docket sheets, Alphabetical Index Cards, Docket Number Index Cards, Judges Case Files, Unpublished Opinions, Judges Memoranda, Hearings, Memoranda, Orders, Opinions, Court of Appeals Panel Reports, and Court of Appeals Circuit Council Meeting Documents.

The collection was maintained in its original order with three series: Case and Subject Index; District Court records; and Court of Appeals records.