[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Page 16206]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 TRIBUTE TO CHIEF JUDGE ROBERT M. BELL

 Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, today I wish to recognize the 
Honorable Robert M. Bell, Chief Judge of the Maryland Court of Appeals, 
for his outstanding contributions as a jurist, administrator, and 
justice advocate. His work on the bench has transformed the Maryland 
judicial system. His success in Maryland has provided leadership for 
national initiatives. And Chief Judge Bell has secured his place in 
history as a civil rights leader, both in Maryland and nationally.
  Chief Judge Bell has served as the Chief Judge of the Maryland Court 
of Appeals and the head of Maryland's Judiciary for the past 15 years. 
But before Chief Judge Bell took the bench, I want to bring to the 
attention of my colleagues in the Senate that Chief Judge Bell was 
already involved with our State's judicial system. As a high school 
student, he was a civil rights protestor who engaged in civil 
disobedience in Baltimore, and his case ultimately reached the U.S. 
Supreme Court.
  The Maryland State Archives has used the Bell v. Maryland case as 
part of its series on ``Teaching American History in Maryland''. 
According to the account by the Archives, in 1960, the majority of 
restaurants in downtown Baltimore were still segregated and blacks were 
not served at all-white dining establishments. Students from Dunbar 
High School and Morgan State College were recruited by the Civic 
Interest Group to enter all-white restaurants and demand service. On 
June 17, 1960, a group of students entered Hooper's Restaurant, located 
at Charles and Fayette Streets, and asked to be served. They were told 
to leave, but 12 of the students, including 16-year-old Robert Mack 
Bell from Dunbar High School, refused. They were each charged with 
trespassing, found guilty, and fined $10. The case was appealed, and 
one of the students' lawyers was Thurgood Marshall from the National 
Association for the Advancement of Colored People, NAACP, who went on 
to become the first African-American Justice on the United States 
Supreme Court. The students and their attorneys argued that the use of 
the State's trespassing laws to support segregation of public 
accommodations violated the Fourteenth Amendment, which guarantees the 
``equal protection of the laws'' to all persons.
  In 1962, the Maryland Court of Appeals upheld the students' 
convictions and the decision of the lower court, and the case was 
appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. In the summer of 1964, the United 
States Senate finally overcame a filibuster and passed the Civil Rights 
Act of 1964, which prohibited segregation and discrimination in public 
accommodations. The State of Maryland also passed a public 
accommodations law. Shortly after this action by Congress, the Supreme 
Court remanded the case back to the Maryland Court of Appeals. On April 
9, 1965, the convictions were reversed, the students were cleared of 
all charges, and the City of Baltimore was ordered to pay court costs 
to the students.
  Robert Mack Bell went on to graduate from Morgan State in Baltimore 
and then Harvard Law School, and was admitted to the Maryland Bar in 
1969. After working in private practice for several years, he was 
appointed as a Baltimore City District Court judge, which handles 
misdemeanors. In 1980, he was elevated to the Baltimore City Circuit 
Court, which handles felony cases and jury trials. In 1984, he was 
elevated again to the Court of Special Appeals, our intermediate 
appellate court. In 1991, Judge Bell was appointed to the Maryland 
Court of Appeals, our State's top court. Finally, he was appointed as 
Chief Judge of the Maryland Court of Appeals in 1996, becoming the 
first African-American to serve in that capacity. He is one of the few 
judges to serve at all four levels of the Maryland judiciary during his 
career. And Chief Judge Bell also has the rare distinction of serving 
on and then running a court that had previously ruled against him.
  During his 2 decades on the bench, Chief Judge Bell has been a moving 
force on committees and commissions that have looked at ways to provide 
greater access to justice, to better incorporate the advantages of 
technology, and to enhance legal training and compensation.
  In 2002, Chief Judge Bell appointed a Commission on Racial and Ethnic 
Fairness in the Judicial Process to evaluate outcomes and recommend 
ways to reduce or eliminate unequal access to or treatment by the court 
system. In 2008, he created the Access to Justice Commission to 
develop, consolidate, coordinate, and implement policy initiatives to 
expand access to and enhance the quality of justice in civil legal 
matters. He sought ways to find non-traditional methods to help solve 
the problems of crime by promoting Alternative Dispute Resolution, ADR, 
programs throughout Maryland. He promoted the growth of drug treatment 
courts in Maryland and established the Standing Committee on Problem-
Solving Courts to coordinate these efforts. He used technology to 
provide more accurate and uniform data critical to the enforcement of 
domestic violence and peace orders, and launched an ongoing effort to 
prepare Maryland judges to adjudicate cases involving science and 
biotechnology. And when the housing crisis hit Maryland, he called 
Maryland's legal community together to provide pro bono assistance to 
homeowners faced with foreclosure. As a result of those efforts, the 
Maryland General Assembly passed legislation to better protect 
homeowners.
  Time and time again, when Chief Judge Bell has faced challenges, he 
has seized the opportunity to find solutions. He has done so with grace 
and intellect and compassion. He has rallied the legal community and 
expanded opportunities for those with few options and no voice.
  From Robert Bell's days as a high school student, long before he even 
went to law school, he has strived to promote justice and equality for 
all Americans. The Preamble to the Constitution provides that ``We the 
People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, 
establish Justice do ordain and establish this Constitution for the 
United States of America.'' Just like Thurgood Marshall, a fellow 
Baltimorean and legal giant, Chief Judge Bell has played a large part 
in upholding and defending our Constitution in Maryland, and in helping 
our State and nation move toward ``establishing justice'' and creating 
a ``more perfect union.'' I urge my colleagues to join me in thanking 
Chief Judge Robert Bell for his civil rights leadership, contributions 
to the legal community, and inspirational life as he retires after an 
outstanding career of public service.

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