[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 100 (Monday, July 19, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1409-E1410]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       ABA CONFERS HIGHEST HONOR ON THE REVEREND ROBERT F. DRINAN

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. BARNEY FRANK

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, July 19, 2004

  Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I am very proud to serve in 
this House as the

[[Page E1410]]

successor to one of its most distinguished former Members, the Reverend 
Robert F. Drinan, who represented the Fourth District of Massachusetts 
from 1970 to 1980. Father Drinan came to Congress after a very 
distinguished career as a legal scholar and administrator, having 
served with enormous distinction as Dean of the Law School at Boston 
College. For 10 years he played a leadership role in this body on a 
wide range of issues, significantly enriching the deliberations of the 
House with his vigorous intellect and strong commitment to the public 
interest.
  Upon leaving Congress in 1981, he resumed his academic career and has 
for more than 20 years continued to make extraordinary moral and 
intellectual contributions to the law. To take just one example, no one 
in the world has done more to advance the cause of international human 
rights--defending basic human rights without regard to the ideology of 
those would deny them--than Father Drinan, both as a Member of Congress 
and subsequently.
  In recognition of his extraordinary career--which still goes 
forward--the American Bar Association will present its highest honor to 
him on August 9 at the ABA Annual Meeting in Atlanta. As ABA President 
Dennis Archer said in announcing the decision to award the ABA medal to 
Father Drinan, ``By his standards of leadership, he contributes to the 
luster and dignity of our award.''
  Mr. Speaker, the American Bar Association in explaining its decision 
to confer this award on a man who ``has demonstrated to lawyers what it 
means to be committed to public service and to countless law students 
what is embodied in the highest dedication to ethical, moral legal 
practice'' gives a summary description of his extraordinarily 
productive career. I ask that this announcement by the American Bar 
Association be printed here.

  ABA Confers Highest Honor on Former Congressman, the Rev. Robert F. 
                    Drinan, Georgetown Law Professor

       Chicago, June 28, 2004.--The American Bar Association today 
     announced it will present the 2004 ABA Medal, the 
     association's highest honor, to the Rev. Robert F. Drinan, 
     S.J., a former congressman, law school dean, ethicist and 
     human rights activist.
       ABA President Dennis W. Archer will present the medal at 
     11:30 a.m. Aug. 9 during the opening session of the 
     association's House of Delegates during the 2004 ABA Annual 
     Meeting in Atlanta.
       ``In an amazing career that has spanned more than half a 
     century, Father Drinan has never faltered in his 
     extraordinary humanitarian efforts and support for justice 
     under the law. He has demonstrated to lawyers what it means 
     to be committed to public service and to countless law 
     students what is embodied in the highest dedication to 
     ethical, moral legal practice. By his standards of 
     leadership, he contributes to the luster and dignity of our 
     award,'' said Archer in announcing the selection.
       The ABA medal recognizes exceptionally distinguished 
     service to the cause of American jurisprudence.
       In nominating Drinan, admirers described him as ``an 
     eloquent and effective advocate for the most downtrodden in 
     society,'' someone ``active in so many areas of the law and 
     human rights that there is not enough space to catalog 
     them,'' and such a ``towering figure in the academic, 
     professional, clerical and public service fields'' that he 
     ``is the stuff of which legends are made.'' They noted the 
     ABA Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities created 
     the Robert F. Drinan Distinguished Service Award in 2001, 
     recognizing his leadership in protecting and advancing human 
     rights, civil liberties and social justice.
       Drinan represented the Fourth District of Massachusetts in 
     the U.S. House of Representatives from 1971 to 1981, and was 
     a member of House committees on the Judiciary, Internal 
     Security, and Government Operations and of the House Select 
     Committee on Aging. He chaired the Subcommittee on Criminal 
     Justice of the House Judiciary Committee, and was a member of 
     the Executive Committee of the Democratic Study Group of the 
     Environmental Study Conference and the Steering Committee of 
     Members of Congress for Peace Through Law. As a congressman, 
     he traveled in congressional delegations and on human rights 
     missions around the world, and he has subsequently served as 
     an election observer in Armenia and Panama.
       Drinan has been a professor at Georgetown University Law 
     Center since 1981. He began teaching at Boston College Law 
     School, where he became a professor in 1966 and also served 
     as dean. He has been a visiting professor or guest lecturer 
     at universities and law schools internationally and across 
     the U.S.
       He is a prolific author, and his eleventh book, ``Can God 
     and Caesar Coexist Balancing Religious Freedom and 
     International Law,'' is due to be published in August by Yale 
     University Press. His previous books all have dealt with 
     major public policy issues. He is the recipient of 21 
     honorary doctoral degrees.
       In the ABA, Drinan is among a very few people ever to serve 
     as chair of two distinct substantive legal sections: the 
     Section of Family Law in 1966-67 and the Section of 
     Individual Rights and Responsibilities in 1990-91. He also is 
     a past chair of the association's Standing Committee on 
     Professionalism and Standing Committee on World Order Under 
     Law, and a former member of the association's policy-making 
     House of Delegates.
       In other law-related organizations, he has been vice 
     president of the Massachusetts Bar Association and chair of 
     its Committee on the Administration of Justice, chair of the 
     Boston Bar Association Committee on Family Law, chair of the 
     Massachusetts Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on 
     Civil Rights, and a member of the National Executive 
     Committee of the American Judicature Society and of the 
     Executive Committee of the Association of American Law 
     Schools.
       Drinan's public service has taken him to leadership roles 
     in many other organizations. He is a member of the National 
     Governing Board for Common Cause and the National Council for 
     the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, and the Board of 
     Directors of People for the American Way, and a past 
     president of Americans for Democratic Action.
       He was a founder and member of the Board of Directors of 
     the Lawyers Alliance for Nuclear Arms Control, and a member 
     of the boards of directors for Bread for the World, the 
     Council for a Livable World Educational Fund and the NAACP 
     Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., and an advisor to 
     the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Commission.
       He served on the Advisory Committee to the U.S. National 
     Archives and the Advisory Board of the Union of Councils for 
     Soviet Jews. He was vice chairman of the National Advisory 
     Council for the American Civil Liberties Union and is a 
     member of the Helsinki Watch Committee.
       Drinan chaired the International Committee for the Release 
     of Anatoly Scharansky and Peace PAC, is a fellow of the 
     American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Bar 
     Foundation, and was a founder of the National Interreligious 
     Task Force on Soviet Jewry. He is a past board member of the 
     National Board of Trustees of the National Conference of 
     Christians and Jews and a member of the American Law 
     Institute.
       With more than 400,000 members, the American Bar 
     Association is the largest voluntary professional membership 
     organization in the world. As the national voice of the legal 
     profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of 
     justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in 
     their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal 
     education, and works to build public understanding around the 
     world of the importance of the rule of law in a democratic 
     society.

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