[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 17 (Wednesday, February 7, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1068-S1070]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         JUDGE JOHN HELM PRATT

  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I am pleased to place in today's Record a 
copy of a tribute to the late Senior Judge John Pratt, of the U.S. 
District Court for the District of Columbia, written by his dear friend 
U.S. District Judge Oliver Gasch. I was privileged to serve under 
Oliver Gasch as an assistant when he was U.S. attorney for the District 
of Columbia, and I came to know Judge Pratt.
  Mr. President, the recognition of the many accomplishments and 
contributions of Judge Pratt to his chosen profession--the law--are too 
numerous to list. Having served on the bench for 27 years, Judge Pratt 
helped to shape legal definitions of civil rights and discrimination.
  Having served during World War II, Judge Pratt was honored as a 
distinguished member of the U.S. Marine Corps earning the Bronze Star 
and a Purple Heart for his service.
  Judge Pratt once served as a page in the U.S. Senate. I am pleased to 
ask unanimous consent that the tribute in honor of the late Judge John 
Helm Pratt be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the tribute was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                      A Tribute to John Helm Pratt

       We were all saddened by news of John's passing on August 
     11, 1995. He died at home surrounded by his devoted wife of 
     56 years, Bernice Safford Pratt, and five children, Sister 
     Clare Pratt RSCJ of Rome, Italy; Lucinda Pratt Pearlman of 
     Berkeley, California; John, Jr. of Red Bank, New Jersey; 
     Patricia Pratt Moriarty of Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts; 
     and Mary Pratt Brandenburg of Columbia, Maryland. In an 
     autobiographical sketch written for his 50th Harvard Reunion, 
     he listed the priorities which meant the most to him as: 
     family, friends and career. He added that ``family stability 
     has contributed more than any other factor to whatever 
     satisfactions have been mine.''
       John Pratt's exceptional and distinguished career can be 
     divided into three segments: first, his education and early 
     legal career; second, his service as a Marine in World War 
     II; and third, his return to private practice and his 
     appointment as a trial judge.
       John's education was unusual. He attributed it to his 
     mother: Boston Latin School, Gonzaga High School,\1\ two 
     years at Georgetown College, his transfer to Harvard College, 
     from which he almost flunked out but graduated two years 
     later with honors at age 19; Harvard Law School, from which 
     he graduated in 1934.
     \1\ Footnotes at end of article.
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       After graduation, he became associated with the Washington 
     firm of George Maurice Morris. Mr. Morris was a distinguished 
     tax lawyer and John found himself doing research work on Mr. 
     Morris's cases and his book on corporate tax law. Since John 
     had no special interest in tax law, he was relieved when a 
     highly controversial ``stoker'' case come to the firm. The 
     Brotherhood of Railway Engineers and Firemen had sued the 
     railroads to require installation of automatic stokers on the 
     large steam locomotives. The record before the administrative 
     law judge was approximately 30,000 pages. On this John and an 
     associate worked long hours and with tremendous dedication. 
     Their efforts were rewarded when the Sixth Circuit affirmed 
     the favorable decision of the administrative law judge. 
     Incidentally, one of John's opponents representing the 
     railroads was my late brother-in-law Carleton Meyer, also a 
     Harvard law graduate. Mr. 

[[Page S1069]]
     Morris later became President of the American Bar Association.
       I got to know John in those days because we were both 
     interested in touch football when the weather got cool and 
     softball during the spring and summer. John was a heavy 
     hitter and extremely skillful at tossing forward passes. 
     Toward the end of this period, our close friendship resulted 
     in our establishing bachelor quarters with two other young 
     lawyers. Our social efforts were directed toward a group of 
     attractive young women who were recent graduates of Vassar 
     and Bryn Mawr and who lived together in a house on 34th 
     Street known as ``The Nunnery.'' We waltzed at the Sulgrave 
     Club and square danced at the Holton Arms gym. Our house was 
     strategically located between those two buildings. John and 
     Phil Herrick were both outstanding tennis players. They were 
     finalists in a competition sponsored by the Junior Board of 
     Commerce. They decided not to play it off for the large 
     silver loving cup but to possess it jointly. I remember 
     perfectly how we used to fill the loving cup with ice and 
     then pour whiskey into it. Our fourth member objected to the 
     assessments for whiskey, which were fairly large. He was 
     overruled.
       Bachelor quarters were discontinued when John got married 
     to Bernice ``Sissy'' Safford. War came following Pearl Harbor 
     and the Marines were looking for a few good men and they 
     found John, who, as the son of a Marine Colonel, naturally 
     was drawn in that direction.
       Years later, Sissy persuaded John, when they were 
     vacationing at Squam Lake, to dictate an account of his 
     career including his Marine service. I have had access to 
     these tapes. John was trained as an Aviation Volunteer 
     Specialist, an ``AVS,'' which he described as ``silver in the 
     hair, gold in the mouth and lead in the ass.'' He named some 
     of his associates: Francis Godolphin, later Dean at 
     Princeton; Ted Lyons, the White Sox pitcher, and Ernie 
     Nevers, a Stanford football star. The class was divided in 
     half, some going to Tarawa and John's half going to Kwajalein 
     with the 4th Marine Division. After the capture of Kwajalein, 
     John's unit was assigned to the seizure of Saipan and Tinian, 
     the strategic atoll large enough to contain all the navies 
     of the world. John's description of these landings and 
     particularly seeing the death and destruction of many of 
     his friends is heartrending. The islands were held by 
     40,000 Japanese who wouldn't surrender.\2\ He recalled how 
     a piece of shrapnel had struck him in the chest. He 
     observed, at least they awarded me a Purple Heart.
       Following the capture of these islands, John's unit, after 
     getting some ``R&R'' in Maui, was assigned to Layte. 
     Incidentally, our paths crossed at the Sentani Strip in New 
     Guinea, where he had learned that I was located. He was on 
     his way up to the Tacloban Strip on Leyte. Our ultimate 
     destination was about five miles from the Tacloban Strip but 
     neither he nor I knew the other's whereabouts. His unit was 
     assigned 82 F4V's, which the Navy had found were unfit for 
     carrier duty. The trouble was the Navy did not supply 
     maintenance personnel. John, as the AVS officer, was briefing 
     these pilots on the details of their next strike. After the 
     briefing, he took a position in his jeep about 50 feet from 
     the runway. The undercarriage on one of these planes gave way 
     and John was suddenly aware that this F4V was headed toward 
     his jeep. The propeller severed John's left arm and he 
     sustained other serious injury. He was ultimately evacuated 
     to Biak, where a Harvard Medical School unit had been set up.
       John tells the story of an elderly nurse who was attending 
     him. He asked her name and she replied, Peabody. He inquired 
     whether she was related to Endicott Peabody, the Headmaster 
     of Groton School. She replied, he is my father. During the 
     course of this conversation, they were both aware of the fact 
     that another Marine, who had lost a leg, was cursing out the 
     orderly for pain caused in the changing of his dressing. John 
     said to Miss Peabody, you wouldn't hear language like that at 
     Groton School, would you? She replied, without changing her 
     expression, Father does not condone profanity at the school.
       John's awards, in addition to the Purple Heart, included 
     the Bronze Star and two Presidential Unit Citations.
       Following these experiences, John ultimately returned to 
     the Morris firm where he subsequently became a partner. He 
     modestly described his experience there as being ``jack of 
     all trades, master of none.'' I remember he had several 
     zoning cases and defended his Marine friend, Colonel Frank 
     Schwable, who had been accused by the Commandant of 
     misconduct, in that while a prisoner of war, the colonel had 
     been coerced into making a confession regarding germ warfare. 
     John won an acquittal. The decision was not popular with the 
     Commandant, who expressed his views extensively. John, with 
     his usual flair for describing the impact of the acquittal on 
     other Marines, told about how, in the Rec Room of another 
     Marine colonel, there were photographs of all the Marine 
     Commandants, except one. That particular photograph was 
     turned to the wall and on the back of it was the official 
     reprimand which the Commandant received as a young Marine, 
     when he, himself, was found guilty of misconduct.
       John was appointed by President Johnson as a Judge of the 
     U.S. District Court in 1968. I knew from my long association 
     with him that he was a deeply religious person. He never made 
     a show of it. It was a private matter with him. The New 
     Catholic Catechism, distributed to the faithful about two 
     years ago, since it was not in existence 27 years ago when 
     John became a judge, could not have been his guiding light. 
     He was certainly motivated, however, to follow its 
     principles. I quote an excerpt from paragraph 1807, 
     respecting justice: ``Justice toward men disposes one to 
     respect the rights of each and to establish in human 
     relationships the harmony that promotes equity with regard to 
     persons and to the common good. The just man, often mentioned 
     in the Sacred Scriptures, is distinguished by habitual right 
     thinking and the uprightness of his conduct toward his 
     neighbor. ``You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to 
     the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your 
     neighbor.'' (Citation omitted.)
       In the 27 years that John served on this Court, he never 
     sought publicity or interviews. He let the record speak for 
     itself. He did, however, always seek to let justice prevail. 
     Typical of this is the ``Forest Haven'' case, which he was 
     struggling with at the time of his death. The case concerned 
     the treatment of mentally retarded persons. The evidence 
     disclosed, and John had found, that the city had failed 
     properly to discharge its responsibilities in the care of 
     these people. He had appointed a Special Master to oversee 
     the functioning of his decree.
       I recall one of his early cases, known as the ``D.C. 
     Nine,'' in which four priests, a nun, a former nun, two 
     Jesuit seminarians and a draft resister broke into the 
     offices of Dow Chemical and poured blood over the files of 
     that company as a protest against the war in Vietnam. Though 
     a devout Catholic, John could not condone such action. they 
     were tried, convicted and sentenced.
       One of the most highly publicized cases that John tried was 
     the corruption case against the former governor of Maryland, 
     Marvin Mandel. After some three months of trial, because of 
     evidence of jury tampering, John declared a mistrial. Another 
     judge was assigned to the case, which resulted in a 
     conviction. In looking over the extensive list of cases in 
     which John wrote opinions, found in the ``Federal 
     Supplement,'' ``Federal Rules Decisions,'' ``Washington Law 
     Reporter,'' and other publications, I ran across one in which 
     minister Farrakhan was involved. The case concerned a 
     presidential order involving sanctions against Libya and, 
     among other things, precluded travel to that country. 
     Minister Farrakhan denounced the sanctions and announced his 
     intent to travel to Libya. He sought to enjoin prosecution 
     for disobedience of a presidential decree. In granting the 
     government's motion to dismiss, John held, among other 
     things, that plaintiff lacked standing.
       In Broderick v. SEC, John was confronted with a sex 
     discrimination case. John found that Broderick herself was a 
     victim of sexual harassment by at least three of her 
     supervisors. More importantly, plaintiff was forced to work 
     in an environment in which the managers harassed her and 
     other employees by bestowing preferential treatment on those 
     who submitted to their sexual advances. The court ordered a 
     substantial recovery for Broderick.
       In Adams v. Bennett, John dealt with a major nationwide 
     desegregation issue for approximately seventeen years. He 
     required schools receiving federal funds to show that their 
     actions were in harmony with requirements promulgated by 
     Congress. In conformity with a 1984 Supreme Court decision 
     \3\ which held that federal courts lack standing to serve as 
     continuing monitors of the wisdom and soundness of executive 
     action, John dismissed this law suit which he had been 
     administering for many years. The Office for Civil Rights of 
     the Department of Education agreed to continue to investigate 
     thoroughly alleged violations in programs or activities 
     receiving financial assistance.
       Two owners of the Florida Avenue Grill, the famed ``Soul 
     Food'' restaurant, were sentenced to six months' imprisonment 
     and a fine in connection with fencing activities. The 
     defendants had pleaded guilty to a charge of interstate 
     transportation of stolen goods after the police infiltrated 
     an operation which directed burglaries and thefts against 
     homes and businesses. The police confiscated approximately 
     two million dollars worth of property.
       While it is true that John was troubled by the concept of 
     mandatory minimum sentences, like many other federal trial 
     judges he continued trying those cases that were assigned to 
     his Court.
       Before he assumed the responsibilities of a federal judge, 
     John's interest in community affairs is reflected by the 
     following: He was elected President of the Harvard Club of 
     Washington in 1949. In 1952 and 1953, he was elected 
     president of the Associated Harvard Clubs of America. He was 
     the President of Harvard Law School Association of the 
     District of Columbia in 1952 and 1953. He was Chairman of the 
     Montgomery County, Maryland Housing Authority, 1950-1953. He 
     was Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the District of 
     Columbia Legal Aid Agency from 1967 to 1968. He served as the 
     Judge Advocate General 1961-1968 of the Marine Corps Reserve 
     Officers Association. He was elected President of the Bar 
     Association of the District of Columbia in 1965 and President 
     of the Barristers club in 1969. He served as President of The 
     Lawyers' Club in 1987. He served as Chairman of the Judicial 
     Conference committee which has the responsiblity of reviewing 
     extrajudicial income reports of federal judges, known as the 
     Ethics Committee. John, in all his activities, demonstrated 
     the 

[[Page S1070]]
     qualifications of a leader. He was a modest man who seldom raised his 
     voice. He didn't have to. He was completely in control of his 
     courtroom and of any other activity which he undertook. All 
     of us who knew John were amazed by his ability to recall with 
     accuracy names of participants and dates of athletic and 
     other events going back sixty or seventy years. What a mind!
       Pax vobiscum.
           With undying respect,
                                                     Oliver Gasch,
                                       Judge, U.S. District Court.

                               Footnotes

     \1\About this time, John also served as a page in the U.S. 
     Senate.
     \2\``On the southern half of the beaches the 4th Marine 
     Division was having plenty of trouble. The unfortunate 1st 
     Battalion of the 25th Regiment, pinned down on an onfiladed 
     beach, observed a Japanese counterattack developing from 
     Agingan Point around 0940. It called for help from air and 
     naval gunfire, and both of them it obtained; the advancing 
     Japanese were discouraged by strafing and bombing attacks and 
     gunfire from Tennessee. But the battalion continued to lose 
     men by accurate artillery fire delivered from high ground not 
     half a mile inland. During the afternoon Colonel Merton J. 
     Batchelder, the regimental commander, sent a part of the 3rd 
     Battalion to help the 1st take Agingan Point.'' Admiral 
     Samuel Eliot Horisons's ``History of United States Naval 
     Operations in World War II,'' Volume VIII, p. 198.
     \3\See Allen v. Wright, 468 U.S. 737, 754

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