[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 24 (Tuesday, February 7, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2265-S2266]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                ED LEVI--AN OUTSTANDING ATTORNEY GENERAL

  Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, today marks the 20th anniversary of the 
swearing-in of Edward Levi as Attorney General of the United States 
under President Gerald Ford.
  Throughout our history, we have been fortunate when the right man has 
served in the right job at the right time. Ed Levi was the right man at 
the right time when he was nominated by President Ford and confirmed by 
the Senate as Attorney General.
  Those were turbulent times. Skepticism and cynicism abounded. The 
Department of Justice was still suffering from the Watergate scandal. 
Two Attorneys General had been indicted. Another had resigned rather 
than follow a President's order. In just over a year, the Department of 
Justice had three Attorneys General, three Deputy Attorneys General, 
and even more assistant attorneys general. Stories began to surface 
about abuses committed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation--the arm 
of government entrusted with the investigation of violations of the 
law. Select committees were formed to investigate the FBI as well as 
the CIA and other intelligence agencies. Faith in the fairness and 
integrity of the administration of Federal justice was at a low ebb.
  Levi, in his 2 short years as Attorney General, restored that faith. 
He did it by the sheer force of his own integrity, by a concerted 
effort to articulate the standards that would govern government 
conduct, and by his demonstration to the public that these standards 
would ensure that our Nation remained a government of laws.
  There was not time, of course, to do everything. There never is. But 
much was accomplished. Standards were formulated to guide the conduct 
of the FBI. As a protection against abuses of the past, guidelines were 
developed for the first time to govern domestic security, foreign 
intelligence and counterintelligence investigations, and other aspects 
of the Bureau's work, including the handling of informants and 
background employment investigations.
  All of these issues were extremely controversial. One statistic 
demonstrates the profound effect that these guidelines have had on the 
Bureau's operation. In July 1973, the FBI had more than 21,000 open 
domestic security cases. Many were investigations of Americans and 
American groups who were considered to be threats to domestic security. 
After the guidelines were adopted, by September 1976, the number was 
reduced to 626. it is even lower today.
  The test of time has demonstrated that these efforts did not 
hamstring the FBI. They strengthened the Bureau and protected its 
agents. These principles still guide the Bureau's operations.
  Another controversial practice split constitutional scholars and 
sowed the seeds of Government distrust. When Ed Levi became Attorney 
General, the FBI tapped telephones and planted microphones to gather 
foreign intelligence without any prior judicial approval--that is, 
without a warrant. Though approval of the Attorney General was required 
for this warrantless electronic surveillance, suspicions were rife 
about who was being wiretapped and how many listening posts existed 
throughout the country.
  To reassure the public, Attorney General Levi took
   several steps. He announced that there were no outstanding instances 
of warrantless taps or electronic surveillance directed against 
American citizens. He then undertook, at every opportunity, to discuss 
the process and safeguards that guided the use of electronic 
surveillance. But he realized that he could not eliminate this distrust 
of Government without legislation that would balance the need to 
protect personal privacy and the need to protect the Nation from 
foreign terrorism.

  He proposed a law that provided a judicial warrant mechanism employed 
by a special court, shaped to meet the particular problems of foreign 
intelligence and to do so within constitutional standards. Just as he 
had done in drafting the FBI guidelines, he consulted with Congress in 
the best nonpartisan tradition. Indeed, the legislation was drafted by 
the staffs of the Department of Justice and the Senate Judiciary 
Committee, working closely with the Attorney General and many Members 
of Congress. I recall frequent conversations with Attorney General Levi 
concerning this proposed legislation. Soon after its introduction, the 
bill was overwhelmingly approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee and 
the Senate Intelligence Committee. It was enacted in the next Congress 
as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and it is a tribute to 
Attorney General Levi's principled and effective leadership.
  Other accomplishments were just as important. As the guidelines 
governing decisions about how and when to conduct investigations were 
nearing completion, the process was launched to establish standards to 
govern the equally important area of prosecutorial decisions--such as 
when to charge an accused, when to bargain for a guilty plea, when the 
Federal Government should prosecute an individual already prosecuted in 
State court for a related offense, and when to grant immunity in 
exchange for testimony. Immigration policies were reformulated to deal 
with illegal immigration within a framework that protected the rights 
of individuals. His comments then are just as relevant today:

       We must remember that we face the problem of unlawful 
     immigration because we remain the world's best hope. 
     Unauthorized immigrants are responding to the same human 
     impulses that motivated each of our forebears. We must 
     address the illegal alien issue in a manner compatible with 
     our democratic values and our tradition as a nation of 
     nations.

  I also recall the time when the Ford administration, acting through 
Attorney General Levi, proposed major new handgun control legislation 
to require a waiting period before a handgun could be purchased. The 
Ford administration sought in vain to find a Senator from the 
President's own party willing to introduce such legislation. I met with 
the Attorney General and offered to sponsor the administration's 
legislation in an effort to advance the debate over handgun control. 
The Attorney General recognized that any comprehensive effort by the 
Federal Government to stem the tide of violent crime required effective 
handgun control legislation. The successful and bipartisan enactment of 
the Brady law in the last Congress owes a great deal to the leadership 
of Ed Levi many years ago.
  Throughout his tenure as Attorney General, Ed Levi was guided by the 
fundamental principle of equal justice under law for all Americans. He 
believed that faith in the law must continually be renewed or else it 
is lost. As he said near the end of his services as Attorney General in 
words that should still guide us today--

       In a society that too easily accepts the notion that 
     everything can be manipulated, it is important to make clear 
     that the administration of justice seeks to be impartial and 
     fair, and that these qualities are not inconsistent with 
     being effective.

  A grateful Nation pauses today on this anniversary to honor a great 
Attorney General for all he did at a difficult period in our history to 
restore the Nation's faith in its system of law 
[[Page S2266]] and justice. Ed Levi is a profile in courage, and a 
proud example for all citizens of excellence in the law and justice at 
its best.


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