[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 4]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 5265]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


                           IN MEMORY OF JUDGE
                             SOL BLATT, JR.

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. JOE WILSON

                           of south carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 27, 2016

  Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, the citizens of South 
Carolina are mourning the loss of one of its most respected judges with 
the death of Judge Sol Blatt, Jr., on April 20, 2016. He was nominated 
by President Richard M. Nixon. The Blatt family, of Russian-Jewish 
heritage, is beloved in Barnwell County for their dedicated service. 
His passing was recognized in an editorial in the Charleston Post and 
Courier on April 23, 2016:

       Sol Blatt, Jr., earned his stellar reputation not for 
     making big headlines but for his long tenure as a fair, 
     courteous and intelligent federal judge--a standard that all 
     judges should aspire to attain.
       Judge Blatt practiced law in his native Barnwell for 25 
     years before 1971 when he was appointed a U.S. District Court 
     judge in Charleston. He became a chief judge in 1986.
       And in 2006, he became the longest-serving federal judge in 
     South Carolina history.
       In honor of that distinction the U.S. district judges in 
     South Carolina signed a resolution naming the first-floor 
     courtroom in Charleston's federal courthouse the Solomon 
     Blatt Jr. Courtroom.
       Would that every judge in that courtroom, where he usually 
     presided, could conduct himself as impressively.
       Judge Blatt's father was the prominent speaker of the S.C. 
     House for 33 years. Like his father, Sol Blatt, Jr., attained 
     prominence for public service, which he handled with grace 
     and competence.
       Mr. Blatt, 94, died Wednesday night at his home in 
     Charleston.
       He will be remembered for his remarkable judicial 
     temperament.
       Indeed, it was as if the American Bar Association had him 
     in mind when it outlined the tenets of judicial temperament: 
     ``compassion, decisiveness, open-mindedness, sensitivity, 
     courtesy, patience, freedom from bias and commitment to equal 
     justice.''

     

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