Charles Antone Horsky

Charles Antone Horsky (March 22, 1910 – August 20, 1997) served as the Advisor on National Capital affairs under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, and was a partner at the law firm of Covington & Burling for nearly forty years.

In his role at the White House and thereafter, he helped pave the way for home rule of the District of Columbia at a time when much of the city’s governance was controlled by the U.S. Congress.

Justice Felix Frankfurter, then a professor at Harvard and early mentor to Horsky, assigned him to clerk for Judge Augustus N. Hand on the 2nd Circuit in New York.

In the wake of World War II, Horsky approached Robert Jackson, the chief prosecutor for the Nuremberg Trials, to collaborate on the cases.

Jackson brought him on board, and Horsky was appointed to the temporary reserves of the Coast Guard so that he could have access to the confidential files pertinent to the case.

As Advisor to the President on National Capital Affairs, Horsky helped bolster the need and funding for a subway system in DC.

He helped negotiate early agreements between the three jurisdictions of DC, Maryland, and Virginia, and worked to assure congressional approval for the Metro project.

Under President Johnson, Horsky drafted the first “home rule” bill, designed to establish a Mayor and City Council elected by the residents of the District of Columbia.

Horsky hired Samuel F. Harahan to serve as Executive Director of the DC Bar Board of Governors Court Study Committee.

The Committee was split into nine subcommittees, each analyzing specific trial and appellate units such as civil, criminal, juvenile, probate and tax, the DC Court of Appeals, and others.

Each subcommittee developed a lengthy written report describing the system prior to the reorganization, depicting the courts at the present, and where warranted recommending changes.

Sam Harahan and Bill Slate met with Horsky and encouraged him to support and help lead a new, more permanent broadly-based nonpartisan court improvement organization.

In January 1982, Horsky, Harahan, Slate and a number of other concerned citizens founded the Council for Court Excellence, a nonprofit nonpartisan organization whose mission is to bring lawyers, judges, and community members together to promote judicial reform, access to justice, and to promote public education about the judicial system.

Back in Washington, up until near the time of his death, Horsky was regularly observed driving his 1962 Ford Galaxie with the top down, in deep winter, with no overcoat.