[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 18 (Tuesday, February 14, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E129-E130]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  HONORING THE LIFE OF RETIRED NEW YORK STATE COURT OF APPEALS JUDGE 
                            MATTHEW J. JASEN

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. BRIAN HIGGINS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 14, 2006

  Mr. HIGGINS. Mr. Speaker, on April 14, 2005, as New York's highest 
court prepared to sit outside of Albany for the first time in recent 
memory, I had occasion to recognize the professional career of retired 
New York State Court of Appeals Judge Matthew Jasen. During that 
extension of remarks, I was honored to take note of the many personal 
and professional accomplishments of Judge Jasen, in a manner consistent 
with the honors bestowed upon him by his successor colleagues on the 
Court of Appeals that day.
  Today, Mr. Speaker, I rise to call the House's attention to the 
passing of this great legal giant in New York State. Judge Matthew J. 
Jasen entered into his eternal rest on February 4, 2006, at the age of 
90.
  Without seeking to be repetitive, Mr. Speaker, the fact remains that 
Judge Jasen was widely regarded as one of the sharpest legal minds of 
his era. Taking his seat on the Court of Appeals back in the days when 
that bench was still elected by popular vote statewide, Judge Jasen was 
the last western New Yorker to serve on the court, and his decisions 
were widely regarded as fair and impeccably researched. Rising to the 
position of senior associate judge before his mandated retirement in 
1985, Judge Jasen was well known as a lawyer's judge--someone who knew 
the law, who understood both its limits and its full potential.
  Following his retirement, Judge Jasen's career in law--even past his 
80th birthday--continued to flourish and become all the more 
distinguished. His appointment by the United States Supreme Court as a 
special master to assist in determining the true border between 
lllinois and Kentucky along the Ohio River is but one example of how 
this keen legal mind continued its contribution to the jurisprudence of 
his State and Nation.
  This past Sunday's Buffalo News editorialized the career of Judge 
Jasen, and it is that editorial with which I will close this extension 
of remarks.
  On behalf of all Members of the House, I extend to the Jasen family 
our most heartfelt sympathy, as well as our appreciation for the many 
contributions made by Judge Matthew Jasen to the American way of life. 
Judge Jasen was the Court of Appeals' first Polish-American member, and 
it is fitting that I close this extension of remarks with the 
traditional Polish toast--``Sto Lat''--which literally translated means 
``100 years.'' While Judge Jasen could not give a chronological century 
to serve the people of this State and Nation, in effect he made good on 
that toast, and I am honored to pay tribute to his memory here today.

                 [From the Buffalo News, Feb. 12, 2006]

                   Jasen, Generation's Legal Standout

       Sorrow flows at the passing of one of the most respected 
     and skilled lawyers and judges of his generation. Former 
     Court of Appeals Judge Matthew J. Jasen, who died Saturday at 
     the age of 90, was both a brilliant legal mind and a 
     respected adviser who guided the practice of law in this 
     region and nationally.
       Jasen was the first Polish-American and the last Western 
     New Yorker to sit on the state's highest court, serving there 
     for 18 years, becoming senior associate judge there before 
     retiring at the legally mandated age of 70 (a mandate he 
     upheld in writing the high court's opinion on its validity). 
     He also was a highly regarded arbiter who, even in 
     retirement, was called upon by the U.S. Supreme Court to work 
     as a ``special master'' deciding such questions as the proper 
     location of the Illinois-Kentucky boundary along the Ohio 
     River. He was known for clear and concise opinions, and for 
     his mentoring of lawyers and judges.
       He was a forceful arguer and legal scholar whose fairly 
     common early year dissents to Court of Appeals decisions in 
     several areas

[[Page E130]]

     were later vindicated in subsequent court rulings, sometimes 
     after his retirement. He won a string of legal honors, 
     including a special Buffalo Law Review issue featuring 
     accolades from the state's top judges.
       Jasen should have been New York's chief judge; he was 
     proposed for that post by a nominating commission in the late 
     1970s, but passed over by then-Gov. Hugh Carey for a more 
     politically connected junior judge. As a conservative 
     Democrat and fiercely independent thinker, Jasen had 
     distanced himself from politics while serving on the high 
     court; that cost him politically, but provides a truer 
     measure of his worth as a judge.
       Even during his retirement, New Yorkers benefited from 
     Jasen's fair-mindedness and independence as he joined or led 
     task forces and committees dealing with matters such as 
     judicial conduct or traffic court fairness, and state agency 
     adjudication procedures. Jasen was a champion of the rule of 
     law, and a man who would have desired no other epitaph.

                          ____________________