[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 10 (Friday, January 16, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S657-S658]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       ACKNOWLEDGING THE LIFELONG SERVICE OF GRIFFIN BOYETTE BELL

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to proceed to the 
consideration of S. Res. 15.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the resolution by title.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A resolution (S. Res. 15), acknowledging the lifelong 
     service of Griffin Boyette Bell, a legal icon, to the State 
     of Georgia, and to the United States.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the 
resolution.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution 
be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider 
be laid on the table.
  The resolution (S. Res. 15) was agreed to.
  The preamble was agreed to.
  The resolution, with its preamble, reads as follows:

                               S. Res. 15

       Whereas Griffin Boyette Bell was born on October 31, 1918, 
     in Americus, Georgia, to Thelma Leola Pilcher and Adlai 
     Cleveland Bell, a cotton farmer;
       Whereas Griffin Boyette Bell died on January 5, 2009, at 
     Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, after enduring long-
     term kidney disease and a battle with pancreatic cancer;
       Whereas Griffin Boyette Bell was raised in the Shiloh 
     community outside of Americus until his family moved into 
     Americus to establish a tire retail store;
       Whereas Griffin Boyette Bell proved himself a superior 
     student in the Americus public schools, and later, at Georgia 
     Southwestern College, also in Americus;
       Whereas in 1942, Griffin Boyette Bell was drafted into the 
     Army, where he served in the Quartermaster Corps and 
     Transportation Corps;
       Whereas Griffin Boyette Bell, while stationed at Fort Lee, 
     Virginia, met and married Mary Powell, who also had family 
     ties to Americus, Georgia, and they later had one son, 
     Griffin Jr.;
       Whereas in 1946, Griffin Boyette Bell, after being 
     discharged from active duty in the Army with the rank of 
     major, enrolled in Mercer University School of Law in Macon, 
     Georgia;
       Whereas Griffin Boyette Bell worked at the law firm of 
     Anderson, Anderson, and Walker while in law school;
       Whereas Griffin Boyette Bell, while still a law student, 
     passed the Georgia bar examination and was appointed city 
     attorney of Warner Robins, Georgia;
       Whereas Griffin Boyette Bell, after graduating with honors 
     from Mercer University School of Law in 1948, practiced law 
     in Savannah, Georgia and Rome, Georgia;
       Whereas in 1953, Griffin Boyette Bell accepted an offer to 
     join the Atlanta law firm of Spalding, Sibley, Troutman and 
     Kelley, later renamed King and Spalding;
       Whereas in 1958, Griffin Boyette Bell was appointed chief 
     of staff to Governor Ernest Vandiver and, while serving in 
     that capacity, was influential in organizing the Sibley 
     Commission, which mapped Georgia's approach to school 
     desegregation;
       Whereas Griffin Boyette Bell, while chief of staff to 
     Governor Ernest Vandiver, helped moderate State policy 
     concerning civil rights and was instrumental in keeping 
     Georgia's schools open during that turbulent period;
       Whereas in 1961, Griffin Boyette Bell was appointed by 
     President John F. Kennedy to the United States Court of 
     Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, where he served for 14 years 
     and often played an instrumental role in mediating disputes 
     during the peak of the United States civil rights movement;
       Whereas in 1976, President Jimmy Carter nominated Griffin 
     Boyette Bell to be the 72nd Attorney General of the United 
     States, and he was confirmed to that position on January 25, 
     1977;
       Whereas Griffin Boyette Bell brought independence and 
     professionalism to the Department of Justice during his 
     tenure as Attorney General by daily posting his third-party 
     contacts, including meetings and calls with the White House, 
     Members of Congress, or other individuals who were not in the 
     Justice Department;
       Whereas Griffin Boyette Bell, in his capacity as Attorney 
     General, advised the Carter administration and helped to 
     increase the number of women and minorities serving on the 
     Federal bench, including by recruiting Wade McCree, an 
     African-American judge for the United States Court of Appeals 
     for the Eighth Circuit, to serve as Solicitor General of the 
     United States and Drew S. Days III, an African-American 
     lawyer for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, to head the Civil 
     Rights Division of the Department of Justice;
       Whereas Griffin Boyette Bell led negotiations to divide his 
     former appellate court, the United States Court of Appeals 
     for the Fifth Circuit, then spanning from Georgia to Texas, 
     into two courts: a new United States Court of Appeals for the 
     Fifth Circuit based in New Orleans and the United States 
     Court

[[Page S658]]

     of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit based in Atlanta;
       Whereas Griffin Boyette Bell, upon resignation as Attorney 
     General in August 1979, was appointed by President Jimmy 
     Carter as the Special Ambassador to the Helsinki Convention;
       Whereas Griffin Boyette Bell served as a member of the 
     Secretary of State's Advisory Committee on South Africa from 
     1985 to 1987;
       Whereas in 1989, Griffin Boyette Bell was appointed by 
     President George H. W. Bush as the Vice Chairman of the 
     President's Commission on Federal Ethics Law Reform;
       Whereas Griffin Boyette Bell served as counsel to President 
     George H. W. Bush during the Iran-Contra affair 
     investigation;
       Whereas in September 2004, Griffin Boyette Bell was 
     appointed Chief Judge of the United States Court of Military 
     Commission Review; and
       Whereas, during Griffin Boyette Bell's career as a lawyer, 
     he specialized in corporate internal investigations, many of 
     which were high profile, including investigations of E.F. 
     Hutton following Federal indictments for that firm's cash 
     management practices, Exxon Valdez after an oil spill in 
     Alaska, and Procter and Gamble after rumors circulated that 
     that company's moon-and-stars logo was a satanic symbol: Now, 
     therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) acknowledges the lifelong service of Griffin Boyette 
     Bell, a legal icon, to the State of Georgia and to the United 
     States; and
       (2) commends Griffin Boyette Bell for his tenure as 
     Attorney General of the United States and his commitment to 
     the United States civil rights movement.

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