[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 22 (Monday, February 22, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E180]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      FOR THE ``FESTSCHRIFT'' OF MY FRIEND, DANIEL HAYS LOWENSTEIN

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. HOWARD L. BERMAN

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, February 22, 2010

  Mr. BERMAN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay homage to the 
pioneering work of Daniel Hays Lowenstein, who is retiring from UCLA 
School of Law to begin service as the founding director for UCLA's 
Center for the Study of Liberal Arts and Free Institutions.
  The field of election law has grown exponentially in recent decades, 
thanks in no small part to the pioneering work of Dan Lowenstein, who 
has been a professor of law at UCLA since 1979, teaching a variety of 
courses focusing on election law and legislation.
  His textbook, Election Law, published in 1995, was the first major 
text on American election law since 1877. Since then, there has been an 
explosion of interest in the subject and Dan has written seminal work 
on virtually every important issue in election law including: 
initiatives and direct democracy; partisan and racial gerrymandering; 
political party associational rights and issues related to party 
primaries and caucuses; campaign finance and political bribery; 
election administration; and the role of competitiveness in election 
law jurisprudence, not to mention literary criticism of works including 
The Merchant of Venice. Since 2002, Dan has served as co-editor of the 
only peer-reviewed scholarly journal devoted to election law issues, 
the Election Law Journal.
  He has, on several occasions, represented members of the House of 
Representatives in litigation and has counseled them for several 
decades on strategies regarding redistricting and other political 
issues.
  Lowenstein began his career as a staff attorney at California Rural 
Legal Assistance, where he spent two and a half years. He served as 
Chief Deputy for California's Secretary of State, Jerry Brown, where he 
specialized in election law, and was the main drafter of the Political 
Reform Act, which was adopted as a statewide initiative (Proposition 9) 
by an overwhelming majority of California voters in 1974. The law 
requires detailed disclosure of the role of money in California 
politics. It created a new Fair Political Practices Commission. Jerry 
Brown, then Governor, appointed Dan as the first chairman of the 
Commission. In that position he earned a reputation for fair play and 
nonpartisanship.
  Dan has served on the national governing board of Common Cause and 
has been a board member and a vice president of Americans for 
Nonsmokers' Rights. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the 
award-winning theatre troupe Interact and twice yearly brings the 
company to the School of Law to perform plays with legal themes, such 
as Sophocles' Antigone, Ibsen's Rosmerholm, and Wouk's The Caine Mutiny 
Court Martial.
  He graduated from Yale University in 1964 and Magna Cum Laude from 
Harvard Law School in 1967. He is married to Sharon Yagi Lowenstein, 
who is originally from Watsonville, California. They have two sons, 
Aaron Lowenstein and Nathan Lowenstein, who are both attorneys working 
in Los Angeles.
  Dan's work, careful, yet provocative, has been cited and debated in 
Supreme Court opinions and in law review and political science articles 
too numerous to count. His decision to take emeritus status at the law 
school and take up a new position as director of UCLA's new Center for 
the Liberal Arts and Free Institutions (CLAFI) represents a new turn in 
his career. Developments in America's great universities over the past 
several decades, while introducing important and often much-needed 
innovations, have also sometimes shouldered aside the study of the 
great achievements of western civilization and of the foundations of 
the free institutions on which our nation rests. From Magna Carta to 
the Declaration of Independence, from William Shakespeare to William 
Faulkner, from the Gothic cathedrals to the monuments that adorn our 
nation's capitol, we are all blessed by a heritage that guides us as we 
seek what is good, what is true, and what is beautiful. CLAFI and 
comparable efforts starting up at other great American universities 
will help assure that we pass our heritage down to future generations. 
Lowenstein's leadership in this movement reflects his own introduction 
to great works as an undergraduate in the Directed Studies program at 
Yale, followed by a lifetime of immersion in the study of free 
institutions, great ideas and great artistic achievements.
  Daniel Hays Lowenstein has set an example for scholarly excellence, 
community service, and intellectual integrity. He is a true Renaissance 
Man. I am proud to call him a friend.

                          ____________________