[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 192 (Tuesday, November 21, 2023)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1119-E1120]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            HONORING THE MEMORY OF WILLIAM ``BILL'' GOODMAN

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. RASHIDA TLAIB

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, November 21, 2023

  Ms. TLAIB. Mr. Speaker, Today I want to recognize my friend, William 
``Bill'' Goodman. Bill was an iconic member of our Detroit legal 
community who never wavered in fighting for the working class, the most 
vulnerable among us. I met Bill over fifteen years ago when he was 
President of the Maurice and Jane Sugar Law Center for Economic and 
Social Justice. He was a mentor to many of us young attorneys and a 
hero to many who were seeking justice.
  Born in 1940, Bill grew up in northwest Detroit, where he witnessed 
the injustices of racism and segregation. This, combined with the 
values instilled in him by his parents, informed the path Bill would 
take with his career and life's work. He earned his juris doctorate 
from the University of Chicago in 1964, returned to Detroit during the 
height of the civil rights movement, and went to work in partnership 
with his father, Ernie Goodman. Over the course of his career, Bill 
took on numerous high-profile cases. He worked as legal director for 
the Center for Constitutional Rights, where he represented Guantanamo 
Bay detainees, Vietnamese survivors of Agent Orange, and the wrongfully 
detained. He sought to focus his work on the protection of civil 
liberties. Bill eventually returned to Detroit as partner at the law 
firm Goodman Hurwitz, where he continued to represent families and 
individuals who were victims of police and government misconduct.
  Bill worked with a number of legal advocacy organizations, including 
the National Lawyers Guild, ACLU, and Sugar Law Center, where I got to 
know him when we both served as board members. I knew Bill to be a 
fierce advocate, a brilliant legal mind, and a tenacious but kind 
warrior for justice.
  Please join me in tribute to Bill Goodman, remembering his life and 
distinguished career. May he rest in power.

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