[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 89 (Tuesday, June 5, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1190]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   TRIBUTE TO JUSTICE JOSEPH RATTIGAN

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. LYNN C. WOOLSEY

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 5, 2007

  Ms. WOOLSEY. Madam Speaker, I rise today along with my colleagues, 
Mr. Baca, Mr. Becerra, Mr. Berman, Mrs. Capps, Mr. Cardoza, Mr. Costa, 
Mrs. Susan Davis, Ms. Anna G. Eshoo, Mr. Farr, Mr. Filner, Ms. Harman, 
Mr. Honda, Ms. Barbara Lee, Ms. Lofgren, Mr. McNerney, Ms. Matsui, Mr. 
George Miller, Mrs. Napolitano, Ms. Roybal-Allard, Ms. Linda Sanchez, 
Ms. Loretta Sanchez, Mr. Schiff, Mr. Sherman, Ms. Solis, Mr. Stark, 
Mrs. Tauscher, Mr. Mike Thompson, Ms. Maxine Waters, Ms. Watson, Mr. 
Henry Waxman, we rise with sadness today to honor our good friend and 
respected mentor, Justice Joseph Rattigan, who passed away after a long 
illness on May 12, 2007, in Santa Rosa, California. He was 87 years 
old.
  Joe Rattigan is a legend in Sonoma County and in California. During a 
long career as an activist, a civic leader, a state legislator, and a 
jurist, he earned respect from all whose lives he touched, whether 
political ally or rival. Known for his eloquence, wit, intelligence, 
and passion, this remarkable man always had time for people and their 
concerns. He mentored other lawyers and judges as well as generations 
of Democratic politicians.
  Born in 1920, Joe grew up in politics in Washington, DC, where his 
father was a law partner with Senator O'Mahoney from Wyoming. He 
attended Catholic University and, after graduating in 1940, worked 
briefly for the Department of Agriculture before joining the Navy to 
fight in WW II. He served as an intelligence officer and then commanded 
a PT boat in the Pacific, earning a decoration for heroism in combat.
  After the war, Joe enrolled in Stanford Law School, graduating in 
1948. He was part of a post-war generation of young lawyers who settled 
in California at that time and made their mark on a booming state. He 
soon joined a Santa Rosa law firm and plunged into local affairs and 
Democratic politics. He served as president of the Sonoma County Bar 
Association, county chairman for Adlai Stevenson's 1956 Presidential 
bid, and a member of the Santa Rosa Board of Public Utilities.
  Joe jumped into electoral politics on his own behalf in 1958. He 
became the youngest state senator in the county's history at age 38, as 
the Democrats took back the legislature and Edmund G. ``Pat'' Brown 
became governor, ushering in a new golden era for California. He served 
two terms, authoring or co-authoring several key bills, including 
measures establishing medical care services for the elderly (a model 
for the Federal Medicare program), the Department of Rehabilitation, 
and the state university system. In 1960, his last-minute maneuvering 
created Sonoma State College (later University), which is now an 
integral part of the county as well as of the state's education system.

  During his time in the legislature and his subsequent 18 years as a 
justice on the Court of Appeals for Northern California, Joe fought for 
the oppressed. Having grown up in a segregated city, he was fiercely 
opposed to discrimination. He supported the controversial Rumsford Fair 
Housing Act which ended the use of restrictive covenants in housing. He 
also carried the one-man, one-vote reapportionment measure that altered 
the way state senators were elected even at a personal cost. This 
measure split Sonoma County into two districts, causing Joe to lose his 
seat.
  Principle always came before politics with Joe Rattigan. He fought 
against the death penalty, attempting to save convicted felon Caryl 
Chessman when he was a freshman Senator. It is widely believed that his 
principled opposition cost him a seat on the state Supreme Court. 
During his time as an appellate justice, however, he continued to make 
a mark on California; for example, he supported separation of church 
and state (despite his Catholic upbringing), championed a first in the 
nation requirement for cities and counties to adopt general plans, and 
wrote a decision overturning Black Panther Party leader Huey Newton's 
murder conviction, which was later upheld.
  Joe is survived by Elizabeth (Betty), his wife of 65 years, whom he 
met in the second grade, by his six children--daughters Catharine Kalin 
and Anne Paine and sons Michael, Thomas, Patrick, and Timothy 
Rattigan--as well as 12 grandchildren.
  Madam Speaker, this week Sonoma County residents and people 
throughout California mourn the passing of Joseph Rattigan. Whether 
people agreed with him or not--and many in the far more conservative 
Sonoma County of the 50s and 60s did not--he was respected for his 
integrity, his political acumen, his sharp legal mind, and a heart as 
big as the Golden State. In 1997, the State Building in downtown Santa 
Rosa was named the Joseph Rattigan State Building. We would hope that 
those who pass through its doors into the bright sunlit foyer will stop 
for a moment and consider the greatest legacy of Joseph Rattigan: a 
life that demonstrated that good government isn't only desirable, it is 
possible.

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