[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 207 (Friday, December 22, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S19237]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




THE 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF JUDGE COFFIN'S APPOINTMENT TO THE FEDERAL COURT 
                               OF APPEALS

  Mr. COHEN Mr. President, 30 years ago, President Johnson wisely 
acceded to Senator Edmund Muskie, urging that Frank Coffin be nominated 
to fill a vacancy on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. 
Soon afterwards the President sent Senator Muskie a photograph of the 
two of them inscribed ``Dear Ed, Come let us reason together--L.B.J.'' 
This is the very message that Judge Coffin has been delivering to 
colleagues on the bench, advocates at the bar, and scholars across the 
country--``come, let us reason together.'' And for three decades now, 
jurists, lawyers, and academics have responded to this invitation to 
engage in a dialog about the law with the learned barrister from 
Lewiston.
  Judge Coffin came to the law in a more simple time, before the age of 
mega-firms, multimillion-dollar verdicts, and television cameras in the 
courtroom. He hung out his shingle in Lewiston and practiced law the 
way many lawyers probably wish they could today, in a one-man firm 
servicing the day-to-day legal needs of his individual clients. His 
relationship with a fellow Bates College graduate, Ed Muskie, brought 
him into politics, and then, after almost a decade of service in 
Congress and the executive branch, he joined the bench.
  From his vantage point on the first circuit, he has witnessed a 
revolution in the law, from the activist period of the Warren and 
Burger courts, to the new formalism of today's majority. Yet he has 
remained a pragmatist, examining the nuances of each set of facts, 
identifying the competing interests at stake, and then drafting an 
option that candidly expresses the reasons for the court's ultimate 
judgment. Judge Coffin's concern has been with legal craftsmanship, not 
trendy theorizing. The careful balancing of competing interests ``is 
not jurisprudential theory,'' he has written, ``but, done well, it is a 
disciplined process, a process with demanding standards of specificity, 
sensitivity, and candor.''
  He is a product of the age of civility. Advocates who have appeared 
before the court, often in the harshest of disputes, aptly characterize 
him as ``a real gentleman, kind and decent, smart as a whip, formal and 
polite, a great judge.'' ``He has the kind of demeanor,'' one attorney 
wrote, ``where everyone comes out of court feeling good, even the 
eventual losers.''
  He has dedicated the lion's share of his career to public life and 
believes strongly in the virtues of public service. ``I do worry about 
young people today,'' he has said, ``going into the most lucrative 
professions where they earn immense amounts of money rather than 
working in public service, which needs good people more than ever.''
  For 30 years, the people of Maine, litigants before the first 
circuit, and the legal profession in general have benefited from the 
service of a good person--Frank Coffin. Lawyer, politician, jurist, 
scholar, he continues to contribute to the quality of our national 
dialog.

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