[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 37 (Thursday, March 20, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2723-S2724]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   TRIBUTE TO JUDGE CHARLES R. RICHEY

 Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, I respectfully rise today and ask 
that we pay tribute to Judge Charles R. Richey.
  Today the flags in front of the Thurgood Marshall Judiciary Building 
fly at half-mast in mourning for Judge Richey. Charles Richey was a 
great man and a superlative judge. We join in the loss with his wife, 
Mardelle, and his sons, Charles and William.
  Judge Richey, despite his lofty status in the courts, always 
considered himself a man of the people and he consistently defied the 
labels of conservative and liberal. His public career began when he 
came to Washington as a legislative counsel to Representative Frances 
Payne Bolton from Ohio. Later he was appointed general counsel for the 
Maryland Public Service Commission during Spiro Agnew's last years as 
Governor. He was appointed to the Federal bench by President Nixon in 
1971.
  In 1979, the American Trial Lawyers Association voted Judge Richey 
Outstanding Federal Trial Judge. He was one of the busiest judges in 
the Washington U.S. District Court and ran a tight ship in the 
courtroom. He was a firm believer in swift justice and had the most up-
to-date docket on the circuit.
  Over the course of his career, Richey handed down many landmark 
decisions, including one he loved to recount--his 1976 ruling that 
called in the California tuna ships for violation of the Marine Mammal 
Protection Act. In that same year he also became the first judge to 
hold that employees who are sexually harassed by their superiors can 
file under title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
  Ever willing to take on the Government on behalf of the little man, 
in 1981, Richey awarded $6 million in back pay and $10 million in 
future earnings for 324 women in the sex discrimination suit against 
the Government Printing Office, then the largest amount ever

[[Page S2724]]

awarded in a sex discrimination case. Perhaps the case most indicative 
of his feeling for the citizens though was his dismissal of charges 
against people camped in protest in Lafayette ``Protest'' Park. He said 
they were exercising their rights under the First Amendment.
  Judge Richey's courtesy in the court was legendary. He used gender-
neutral terms when discussing certain statutes mentioning only men. 
Despite his own strict Methodist upbringing, he gave witnesses options 
on oaths containing no religious references and dispensing with the 
Gideon Bible. One said of him, ``Judge Richey is tough as shoe leather, 
but fair minded almost to a fault.''
  We shall all miss this man. He leaves behind an unparalled judicial 
legacy and record of public service.

                          ____________________