[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 107 (Friday, July 25, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8149-S8150]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               TRIBUTE TO JUSTICE WILLIAM J. BRENNAN, JR.

  Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, it is with a sad and heavy heart that 
I rise to pay tribute to a great American and New Jerseyan, Justice 
William J. Brennan, Jr., who passed away yesterday at age 91. The 
thoughts and prayers of all the people of our State and country are 
with his wife Mary, his three children William J., III, Hugh, and 
Nancy, as well as his seven grandchildren.
  Mr. President, during nearly 34 years on the Supreme Court, Justice 
Brennan had an enormous impact on this Nation's constitutional 
jurisprudence. Justice Brennan was a consistent champion of freedom of 
expression, of strict separation of church and state, and of equality 
for the poor, racial minorities, and women. In fact, he was a life-long 
defender of the freedoms of all Americans.
  William Brennan's life was truly the epitome of the American Dream. 
He was born in Newark, NJ, on April 25, 1906, the second oldest of the 
eight children of an Irish immigrant who started as a laborer but rose 
through the ranks to become an important labor leader and the city's 
commissioner of public safety. ``Everything I am,'' the justice later 
wrote, ``I am because of my father.''
  He was an outstanding student at Barringer High School in Newark. He 
then went on to study at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton 
School of Finance and Commerce. He was graduated with honors and won a 
scholarship to the Harvard Law School, from which he received a degree 
in 1931.
  Upon graduation, Bill Brennan embarked upon a successful and 
distinguished career in private legal practice. He later served his 
country by entering active military service in 1942, eventually 
becoming a colonel and troubleshooter for Army procurement.
  After returning from the war, he quickly emerged as a leader of the 
New Jersey bar, particularly his involvement in New Jersey's court 
reform movement under a nationally renowned Chief Justice Arthur 
Vanderbilt. His talents were widely recognized in the legal community, 
leading to his appointment to the New Jersey trial bench, from which he 
rapidly ascended to the State supreme court.

[[Page S8150]]

  Mr. President, it was during this tenure on the New Jersey court that 
Justice Brennan first gained national attention. He was one of the 
first public figures to take on the infamous Senator Joseph McCarthy 
and the excesses of the McCarthy-era.
  Specifically, in one famous speech at the Monmouth County Rotary 
Club, he boldly referred to certain congressional inquiries as modern 
counterparts to the Salem witch trials, sentiments very much ahead of 
his time.
  After 8 years as a State judge, 4 on the State supreme court, Bill 
Brennan was nominated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956 to be 
an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Justice 
Brennan served on the Nation's highest court for 34 years before poor 
health forced him, at age 84, to retire in 1990. His tenure spanned 
those of eight Presidents. In the High Court's history, only William O. 
Douglas wrote more opinions.
  In fact, Justice Brennan's own confirmation as an Associate Justice 
of the U.S. Supreme Court was opposed by some because of views that he 
had expressed about McCarthyism--the speeches that later caused Senator 
McCarthy to be the lone dissenting vote to President Eisenhower's 
nomination of Brennan to our Nation's High Court.
  Mr. President, it is not his remarkable life or long tenure on the 
bench that made William Brennan a towering figure in our Nation's 
history. Rather, his true legacy is the preservation and expansion of 
the individual rights all Americans enjoy today. He was, in short, our 
country's strongest champion of the individual.
  A recent survey of 96 scholars listed Justice Brennan as fifth in the 
list of all-time great Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court. Ahead of him 
ranked only John Marshall, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Earl Warren, and 
Louis Brandeis.
  Justice Brennan crafted many landmark decisions associated with the 
Warren Court of the late 1950's and 1960's. His ruling led to the one-
person, one-vote principle of political reapportionment, and empowered 
everyday citizens to use the courts to fight city hall.
  In more than 1,200 opinions, Justice Brennan defined obscenity and 
broadened the rights of any person--including the poor, mentally 
handicapped, or imprisoned--to seek redress against the Government 
through the courts. He also gave news organizations first amendment 
protections in libel lawsuits.
  During the Berger and Rehnquist years, he continued to champion the 
Bill of Rights and the 14th amendment. In all of his opinions and 
dissents, liberty and equality were his bywords.
  Historian David Halberstam described the source of Justice Brennan's 
greatness. William Brennan, he wrote, never forgot where he came from. 
He never forgot his immigrant father shoveling coal for a living, 
courageously joining a union in an era when to do so could cost a man 
his livelihood, if not his life. Brennan grew up on a house that knew 
the meaning of layoffs and discrimination. He instinctively identified 
with the disadvantaged and the dispossessed.
  Justice Brennan himself revealed the secret of his unfailing 
humanity, compassion and passion for individual freedom. He wrote that 
he always focused on the people behind the cases, always aware that the 
case before the Court was there because of ``a person who cried out for 
nothing more than common human dignity. In each case, our Constitution 
intervened to provide the cloak of dignity.''
  Mr. President, through it all, Justice Brennan remained universally 
liked, even adored, by colleagues, law clerks, Court personnel, and 
virtually everyone who came in contact with him. He was always 
described as warm, gracious, and utterly without pretense.
  I had the privilege and the honor to get to know Bill Brennan on a 
personal level. Although it was late in his tenure on the bench, he was 
remarkably alert, witty and warm, and I greatly enjoyed our 
conversations.
  Mr. President, Bill Brennan's character, personality, and intellect 
were perfectly matched, each so unique so as to be totally 
unforgettable.
  Despite the brevity of our personal relationship, every meeting that 
we had--perhaps a half-dozen in all--left me feeling like I had just 
seen a lifelong friend.
  He stood for so much that he helped me stand taller for those I 
serve. Knowing him was one of my life's most treasured experiences. I 
deeply regret that our paths will not cross again.
  In a tribute to Justice Brennan, his colleague Justice Byron White 
once remembered that Bill Brennan's creed was that a judge should 
proceed with ``a sparkling vision of the supremacy of the human dignity 
of every individual.''
  Mr. President, that majestic statement is a fitting tribute to the 
life and work of Justice William J. Brennan, Jr.

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