[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 73 (Monday, May 1, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1437-S1438]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      REMEMBERING LOWELL SACHNOFF

  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, in the Jewish faith, there is a concept 
known as Tikkun olam. It refers to our responsibility to heal the world 
through good deeds and devotion to others. I want to tell you about a 
man who devoted all 92 years of his life to healing our world. His name 
was Lowell Sachnoff. He was a man who found joy in life, the law, and 
the cause of equal justice for all. And he brought that joy to all of 
us who were lucky to count him as a friend.
  Lowell passed away last month, peacefully, in his home in Evanston, 
IL. And saddened as I am by his loss, I am--above all--grateful that I 
got to know him. Lowell was a model of kindness, curiosity, and 
integrity. And in the words of his wife Fay, he was ``absolutely 
fearless when it came to representing the downtrodden, ignored, and 
abused.'' Our world is a better place because of his lifetime of 
service.
  Lowell's commitment to serving others began where he was born and 
raised: on Maxwell Street in Chicago. He grew up in a community of 
hard-working, Jewish immigrants during the Depression. And even from a 
young age, Lowell had a hunger for healing our broken world. It is only 
fitting--Lowell was raised by a family whose own world had been 
shattered by hate and persecution. His parents and grandparents were 
forced to flee their ancestral homeland of Ukraine because of pogroms 
targeting Jews.
  As a child, Lowell's grandparents would tell him stories about those 
dark days in Ukraine, about the relatives and friends who were tortured 
and murdered by the Russian regime, and the terrors of life in a 
``lawless society.'' It was these conversations around the Sachnoff 
dinner table that inspired Lowell to become a lawyer--and to wield the 
law as an instrument for justice.
  As a student at Chicago's Senn High School, Lowell excelled in and 
outside of the classroom. He was a star on the swim team--and was even 
offered a full academic scholarship at Harvard and, later, Harvard Law. 
But before beginning his legal career, Lowell decided to first serve 
his country. He enlisted in the military and served as a lieutenant 
commander and naval intelligence officer during the Korean war. It was 
an experience that led to Lowell discovering one of his many lifelong 
passions: the Russian language. At first, he learned Russian as part of 
his intelligence responsibilities--but he stuck with it.
  In fact, I remember a conversation we had about 10 years ago. Lowell 
told me he was still practicing Russian--60 years later--through the 
online education platform Coursera. It is just one example of his 
boundless love for learning and discovery. And Lowell's curiosity--like 
his commitment to equal justice--only grew as the years went on.
  After serving in the military, Lowell brought his fight for justice 
home. He graduated from Harvard Law, with honors, and soon emerged as a 
legal legend and a civil rights icon. Lowell always understood that the 
cause of civil rights and human rights never comes to a final verdict. 
Those dedicated to freedom and fairness forge new contests and take on 
new battles every day.
  And for Lowell, the litany of causes began in the 1960s. In his 
pursuit of justice, he took on cases that most lawyers would never 
touch. One of them was a lawsuit against the Chicago Police officers 
who murdered two members of the Black Panther Party while they slept. 
One of the victims was Fred Hampton. It was the height of the civil 
rights movement, and tensions were even higher. But true to his 
fearless nature, Lowell took on the case--and won.
  A few years later, Lowell scored another victory for justice. He won 
a jury verdict regarding the routine, unlawful strip-searching of women 
by Chicago Police. Years after that, he won another historic verdict 
protecting the rights of women seeking reproductive healthcare. Time 
and again, Lowell fought for equality in every form--racial, gender, 
economic, you name it. He made no exceptions--because he was on a 
mission to heal the world for everyone.
  In 1981, Lowell's firm Sachnoff & Weaver represented a transgender 
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who had been fired because of her gender identity. Today, nearly 40 
years later, our Nation still has a long way to go in protecting the 
rights of transgender Americans. But with that case, Lowell helped 
introduce a legal rationale for enshrining transgender rights into the 
Civil Rights Act--which happened decades later.
  During our many years of friendship, Lowell never once called me on 
behalf of a paying client. Others would speak for them. The one time 
Lowell did call me about a case, it involved a man who had no voice in 
our system of justice. He was an accused terrorist who had been 
imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay for 15 years with no formal charge and no 
hope for a trial. Many considered the case a lost cause. Others 
considered it too controversial to touch. But Lowell never gave up. He 
believed that, even though the road to justice may be long, he had a 
responsibility to reach the end of it. So he pushed onward, for years, 
with a group of lawyers who shared his belief that Guantanamo was a 
``stain on our justice system.''
  Lowell even traveled to Guantanamo Bay six times, when he was in his 
80s, to meet with detainees. And eventually, he and his cocounsel 
negotiated the release of four men who had been held captive for years. 
Lowell poured his whole heart into the case, as he did with every case. 
When he saw injustice, in any form, he couldn't help but think of his 
family who fled Ukraine. And he couldn't help but act.
  Really, there is a simple explanation for Lowell's long record of 
legal victories: He not only had a big, generous heart--but a big, 
sharp mind to match. In the words of the head of the Illinois ACLU, 
Colleen Connell, Lowell was a ``lawyer's lawyer . . . you could only be 
impressed [by] how he was able to conceptualize and bring a legal 
argument to life.''
  And Lowell shared his wisdom and love for the law with everyone who 
worked with him. Perhaps his favorite part of leading Sachnoff & Weaver 
was mentoring younger litigators. He would take them under his wing and 
share whatever legal wisdom he could. These young lawyers became known 
as Lowell's ``ducklings,'' a nickname that has stuck even to this day, 
when said ducklings are now in their 60s and 70s.
  It was while working at Sachnoff & Weaver that Lowell joined forces 
with his most powerful ally in the fight for justice: his wife Fay 
Clayton. They met while working as lawyers in the same department, and 
things remained strictly professional for a few years. But soon enough, 
the sparks flew. They fell in love and became quite the power couple, 
working together to build a more equitable system of justice for 
everyone.
  Fay was captivated by the same qualities that so many of Lowell's 
friends loved: his zeal for life, learning, and creative expression. 
When they first started dating, Lowell would even surprise Fay with 
poems he had written for her. And his gift for writing was another of 
Lowell's passions that only grew as the years went on.
  Lowell and Fay were true believers in the idea that, no matter how 
busy life becomes, we should always find time to engage with our 
lifelong passions and chase new adventures. And together, that is 
exactly what they did--from scuba diving off the coast of Mexico, to 
growing vegetables, baking challah, going to jazz and classical music 
concerts, and swimming.
  Of course, nothing made the two of them happier than sharing their 
love for adventure with the children and grandchildren. As one example, 
Lowell and Fay made a promise to each one of his grandkids: Pick any 
place in the world you want to go, and we will take you. And they made 
good on that promise, traveling to Australia, Kenya, Peru, Greece, and 
Croatia. It was a true family world tour.
  And in honor of Lowell's lifelong love for learning, his children 
have paid a fitting, final tribute. They created a writing prize, named 
in Lowell's honor, at his alma mater Senn High School. It is a gift 
that will support a new generation of changemakers, so they can follow 
Lowell's footsteps in the fight for justice.
  I mentioned Lowell's love for poetry. One of his favorite poets was 
William Butler Yeats. Yeats once observed, ``The world is full of magic 
things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.'' Lowell 
lived his life sharpening and fine-tuning his senses to discover the 
world's magic things. He did it through the law, through his 
relationships, and through his voracious appetite for knowledge. And by 
devoting his life to healing our world, he uplifted countless others in 
their journey to discover those magic things. He set an example we 
would be wise to follow. The world has lost a good man.
  Loretta and I join Fay; Lowell's children Scott, Marc, and Kate; his 
stepchildren Kim and Suzanne; his grandkids Allie, Sam, Joel, Monica, 
and Sasha; and his great-granddaughter Sofia in mourning his loss. We 
miss him dearly. And we send our love to you all.

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