[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 84 (Monday, May 20, 2019)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E634-E635]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    THE HONORABLE DAMON JEROME KEITH

                                  _____
                                 

                       HON. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                          Monday, May 20, 2019

  Ms. JOHNSON of Texas. Madam Speaker, as the representative of the 
30th District of Texas, I'd like to recognize the passing of The 
Honorable Damon Jerome Keith, Senior Judge of the United States Court 
of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
  Judge Damon J. Keith, one of the nation's longest-serving federal 
judges, was a tireless champion of civil rights and civil liberties. 
Born in Detroit in 1922, Judge Keith was the grandson of enslaved 
people. He went on to become the sixth African American in U.S. history 
to serve on the federal court of appeals. During his time on the bench, 
he made a series of landmark decisions that changed the social and 
legal landscape of the country.

[[Page E635]]

  Judge Keith graduated from West Virginia State College in 1943 before 
serving in a segregated army during World War II. He would go on to 
receive his J.D. from Howard Law School in 1949, pass the Michigan bar 
exam in 1950 and earn an L.L.M. from Wayne State University School of 
Law in 1956.
  By 1967, Judge Keith was on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern 
District of Michigan. By 1975, he was chief judge, and in 1977 he was 
nominated by President Jimmy Carter to succeed Wade McCree on the 
federal court of appeals.
  Judge Keith's legacy was cemented when he famously ruled in 1971 that 
President Richard Nixon's Attorney General John Mitchell had to 
disclose the transcripts of illegal wiretaps Mitchell had authorized 
without first obtaining a search warrant. Judge Keith's decision was 
upheld by the Court of Appeals. The Supreme Court's landmark decision 
in United States v. U.S. District Court also known as ``the Keith 
Case,'' contributed in 1978 to President Jimmy Carter signing the 
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
  In one of the federal judiciary's longest and most prolific careers, 
Judge Keith was a fountainhead of regional rulings with national 
implications. He attacked racial segregation in education, housing and 
employment; conservative efforts to limit African-American voting; and 
after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, secret hearings to 
deport hundreds of immigrants deemed suspicious led by Attorney General 
John Ashcroft.
  America is a better country because she had Judge Keith to help 
safeguard our civil liberties. I want to honor Judge Keith for his 
tireless commitment to providing equality and justice to all.

                          ____________________