[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 105 (Monday, June 26, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9097-S9098]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. WARNER:
  S. 965. A bill to designate the United States Courthouse for the 
Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria, VA, as the Albert V. Bryan 
United States Courthouse; to the Committee on Environment and Public 
Works.


              ALBERT V. BRYAN UNITED STATES COURTHOUSE ACT

  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I introduce legislation to transfer the 
name of the Albert V. Bryan United States Courthouse to the New Federal 
courthouse in Alexandria, VA.
  The current Federal courthouse at 200 South Washington Street in 
Alexandria, Virginia bears the name of one of Virginia's most 
distinguished jurists, Albert V. Bryan.
  My legislation simply ensures that when the new courthouse is opened 
it shall be known as the Albert V. Bryan United States Courthouse.
  Mr. President, the recognition of the many accomplishments and 
contributions of Judge Bryan to his chosen profession--the law--and to 
his community is not a new matter for this body.
  On October 9, 1986, the Senate passed by unanimous consent S. 2890 to 
designate the Federal courthouse in Alexandria in honor of Judge 
Bryan's lifetime of public service. Since 1987, the Alexandria 
courthouse has carried his name.
  Appointed to the U.S. district court in 1947 by President Truman and 
promoted to the appeals court by President Kennedy in 1961, Judge Bryan 
developed a record as a legal conservative and a strict 
constructionist. He was known for his tolerance on the bench, 
demonstrating reluctance to cut off lawyers in mid argument, and 
reacting sternly to those who flouted his judicial orders.
  Throughout his 37 years on the Federal bench, Judge Bryan was known 
to be fair, firm, and thorough. His was a low-key personality, his 
demeanor

[[Page S9098]]

marked by modesty, politeness and courtliness spiked with a good dose 
of dry wit. Chief Judge Harrison L. Winter of the Fourth Circuit Court 
of Appeals once remarked that Judge Bryan represented ``old Virginia at 
its very best.''
  Judge Bryan's renowned wit was further evidenced in his dislike of 
pomposity. He worked diligently to ensure that his writings were clean 
and precise, often laboring lengthily to identify the exact wording he 
sought. Once, seeking a simple synonym for ``gravamen,'' the essential 
part of a legal complaint, he rejected such complexities as 
``quintessence,'' settling instead on the word ``nub.''
  Born in 1899, Judge Bryan grew up in Alexandria just one block from 
the courthouse where he would later preside. He attended Alexandria 
public schools, then distinguished himself at the University of 
Virginia and, ultimately, its law school. He is said to have taken 
great pride in having been named rector of the university in later 
life.
  Returning to Alexandria in 1921, he became something of a fixture in 
the city. He was comfortable riding the bus to his west end home, and 
he was frequently seen taking lunch in modest, small restaurants near 
the courthouse.
  A conservative on racial issues, Judge Bryan, while a district court 
judge, ordered that four black students be enrolled in Arlington's all-
white Stratford Junior High School in 1958. The students' admission the 
following February marked the first day of desegregation in Virginia. 
He also served on the Federal judicial panel that ordered racial 
integration for Prince Edward County's public schools. The Prince 
Edward case later became part of the Supreme Court's historic Brown 
versus Board of Education decision.
  In 1969, Judge Bryan and two additional appeals judges struck down 
Virginia's tuition grant program--the last vestige of massive 
resistance to integration. One year later, he gained considerable 
notice when he rejected an appeal by Yippie leader Jerry Rubin, sending 
the Vietnam protestor to jail for 30 days for disorderly conduct during 
a 1967 demonstration at the Pentagon.
  Judge Bryan is credited with writing 322 opinions as a circuit judge 
and an additional 18 opinions while he was a district judge. He was 
reversed in only four cases--a dramatic record which few could equal.
  Judge Bryan's accomplishments are perhaps best summarized by the 
comments made at the original courthouse dedication in 1987, by Supreme 
Court Justice Lewis Powell, Jr.
  He was indeed an exceptionally able and scholarly judge. Every lawyer 
who ever argued a case before the fourth circuit court was happy to 
find Judge Bryan had been assigned to the panel.
  Judge Powell also quoted a beautiful tribute to Judge Bryan made by 
Chief Judge Harrison Winter at the Fourth Circuit Judicial Conference: 
``Albert Bryan was a man to love, a man to respect, and a man to 
emulate.''
  The new Federal courthouse in Alexandria will be located at 
Courthouse Square South and Jamieson Avenue. My legislation provides 
that when this facility is completed it shall be known as the Albert F. 
Bryan Courthouse.
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