[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 59 (Tuesday, April 24, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E634]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         HONORING DAVID GRABILL

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. LYNN C. WOOLSEY

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 24, 2012

  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor David Grabill, a 
lawyer in Santa Rosa, CA, who is receiving the Jack Green Civil 
Liberties Award from the Sonoma County Chapter of the Northern 
California American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). This award is 
presented annually to a leader who has advanced the cause of social 
justice in the community.
  During his 45 years of practice, David Grabill has represented 
individuals and groups in civil rights cases not only in our community, 
but in places like Gary, Indiana; Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in 
South Dakota; Charleston, West Virginia; and Delano and Escondido, 
California. He assisted in Robert Kennedy's presidential campaign, 
represented members of the Black Panther Party in Los Angeles, and 
worked with the United Farm Workers on union rights. He has also 
extended his practice to welfare and reproductive rights, Native 
American legal services, black lung, labor matters, and others, giving 
his time and expertise to those in need of legal services.
  Mr. Grabill grew up in Washington, DC, and attended Yale University 
and the University of Pennsylvania law school. He met his wife, Dorothy 
Battenfeld in West Virginia, and, in 1981, settled with his family in 
Santa Rosa. He served for 14 years as directing attorney for California 
Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA), working on behalf of California's rural 
poor.
  He soon joined with other attorneys during the Reagan administration 
to obtain an injunction prohibiting the federal government from 
detaining any individual merely to investigate her/his immigration 
status unless they had reasonable grounds to believe the person was not 
legally in the Country. He also served for many years on the Board of 
the Sonoma County ACLU Chapter where he provided significant pro bono 
legal support on various issues.
  Today David Grabill specializes locally in cases involving affordable 
housing and housing discrimination. With the Housing Advocacy Group 
(HAG) that he started with friends in 1998, he focuses his efforts on 
creating more affordable housing and combating discrimination against 
lower income, mostly Latino and African American, residents.
  Mr. Speaker, David Grabill has dedicated his life to the advancement 
of social justice and human rights. Please join me in congratulating 
him on the Sonoma ACLU's Jack Green Civil Liberties Award.

                          ____________________