[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 120 (Wednesday, July 17, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S4874]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                     Remembering John Paul Stevens

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, last night, we received the news, the sad 
news, that Justice John Paul Stevens passed away at the age of 99. He 
was a son of the ``greatest generation,'' a code breaker in the U.S. 
Navy at Pearl Harbor, a lifelong Chicago Cubs fan, and a Shakespearean 
scholar. What a combination.
  John Paul Stevens was the third longest serving Justice on the U.S. 
Supreme Court in the Nation's history. The length of his tenure meant 
the jurisprudence of Justice Stevens left a mark on nearly every area 
of the law. Just as remarkable as the length of his tenure was its 
quality.
  Justice John Paul Stevens was a champion for civil rights, equality, 
and accountability, who devoted his life to the ideal of equal justice 
under the law. He worked to constrain the use of the death penalty, 
defend abortion rights, articulate the bounds of Presidential power--
very needed today--and believed that unravelling the limits on 
corporate campaign spending ``threatens to undermine the integrity of 
elected institutions across the nation.'' He was so right.
  The fact that Leader McConnell and all our Republican friends lead 
the charge in allowing so much corporate money--money of the very 
wealthy--to cascade into our system--well, Justice Stevens is in Heaven 
reminding them of what they are doing to faith in our democratic 
institutions.
  Stevens was at times an iconoclast. He was willing to buck 
conventional approaches and have his own views evolve. One constant, 
however, was his courtesy. During oral arguments, he would begin with 
the preface: ``May I ask a question,'' as if the counsel were doing him 
a favor. Out of respect for the respect he paid to everyone who came 
before the Court, on his last day on the Bench, lawyers and spectators 
throughout the Supreme Court Chamber wore his signature bow tie in his 
honor, a more fitting tribute than anything I could say on the Senate 
floor.
  Justice Stevens was a great man, a model jurist: wise, fair, 
compassionate, and caring about the little guy and gal. Our judiciary 
today needs more like him. There are too many on the Supreme Court who 
are virtually the opposite of what Stevens stood for. He will be sorely 
missed.