[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 107 (Friday, July 25, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H5808-H5809]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            JUSTICE BRENNAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Burr). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Bonior] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, I rise this afternoon to read an editorial 
that I think aptly described the life of Justice William Brennan. It is 
entitled ``Justice Brennan's Vision'':
  William J. Brennan, Jr., who died yesterday at the age of 91 brought 
to his long and productive career on the U.S. Supreme Court a tenacious 
commitment to advancing individual rights and the Constitution's 
promise of fairness and equality. He served for 34 years, a tenure that 
spanned eight Presidents.
  Named to the court in 1956 by Dwight Eisenhower, Justice Brennan saw 
the law not as an abstraction but as an immensely powerful weapon to 
improve society and enlarge justice. As such, he was a crucial voice on 
the Warren Court of the 1960's, a body that boldly expanded the role of 
the Federal courts and the Constitution itself to protect individual 
liberties.
  Yet even when the Court shifted in a more conservative direction 
under Chief Justices Warren Burger and, later, William Rehnquist, 
Justice Brennan was not content to play a marginal role as an eloquent 
dissenter. Armed with a keen intellect, a forceful personality, and a 
gift for building coalitions, he had surprising success in mustering

[[Page H5809]]

narrow majorities to keep alive the legacy of the Warren Court and its 
core notion that the Constitution was a living document that could and 
should be interpreted aggressively.
  There is no individual in this country, on or off the Court, who has 
had a more profound and sustained impact upon public policy in the 
United States for the past 27 years, said an article in the 
conservative journal National Review in 1984, and it is hard to 
disagree with that assessment. Justice Brennan was the author of 1,350 
opinions, many of them landmark rulings that altered the political and 
social landscape.
  He left his mark on a wide range of issues. Baker versus Carr, in 
1962, asserted the one-person-one-vote doctrine that transformed 
democracy and, through reapportionment, the composition of the Nation's 
legislatures. His famous first amendment ruling in New York Times 
versus Sullivan in 1964 reconfigured the law of libel to give breathing 
space for free expression and the robust debate of public issues. In 
Goldberg versus Kelly, a 1970 ruling of which he was particularly 
proud, Justice Brennan initiated what turned out to be a steady 
expansion of the 14th amendment's guarantee of due process by ruling 
that a State could not terminate a welfare recipient's benefits without 
a hearing.
  Over all, Justice Brennan's greatness was rooted in his vision of the 
law as a moral force and his understanding that the genius of the 
Constitution would be betrayed if the court insisted on the narrow, 
static doctrine of original intent, the notion that the Constitution 
can best be interpreted through the eyes of the Framers. This unique 
feature of the Constitution, he argued instead, was the adaptability of 
its great principles to cope with current problems and needs.
  That vision and driving passion are not thriving in today's court. 
Like Justice Brennan himself, they are sorely missed.
  I had the occasion, Mr. Speaker, to know Justice Brennan. He was a 
remarkable man. He will dearly be missed. He is one of the truly great 
Justices and great people of our times and we send our condolences and 
our best to his family.

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