[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book II)]
[September 21, 2000]
[Pages 1894-1897]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks to the Michigan State Bar Association in Detroit, Michigan
September 21, 2000

    Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for that 
warm welcome. Thank you, President Butzbaugh, for that introduction, even though you almost took my 
speech off with you. [Laughter]
    And I also want to thank your incoming bar vice president, Reginald 
Turner, because he was a White House fellow, 
and I know he's chairing your Access to Justice Task Force now. And I 
was glad he was out there. Thank you. And I want to acknowledge the 
presence here of your attorney general, Jennifer Granholm, and the president of the Legal Services 
Corporation, John McKay, and Judge Harold 
Hood, the first State bar commission chair on 
gender, race, and ethnic bias issues. That's very important. I thank 
you.
    I'd also like to say that my longtime friend Mayor Archer was here and had to leave, but his wife, Trudy 
Archer, is here. And I thank you, Trudy, for 
staying around. You've heard me speak a lot before, and you didn't have 
to do that. I thank you.
    When the mayor heard I was going to be 
in Michigan today, he told me you were here, and you were interested in 
these access-to-justice issues. And he told me that I was coming to the 
bar association. [Laughter] We've been friends, as I said, a very, very 
long time. He and Hillary used to 
work together in the ABA, back when he was a judge and before I was 
President, on the participation of women and minorities in the bar. So 
I've known Dennis for many years, and we share a common interest in a 
lot of the things that you're concerned about now.
    I would like to begin by congratulating those who were honored for 
50 years of service in the legal profession. A tremendous amount has 
been done in the last half century to increase access to justice, from 
the establishment of our modern civil rights laws to the creation of 
Legal Services Corporation, to the acceptance of public interest 
practice, to the growing numbers of women and minorities in the 
profession. And Michigan lawyers clearly have been on the forefront of 
those efforts. I already mentioned the role Mayor Archer played in the ABA when he was on the supreme court.
    I'd like to mention two of those honored tonight: Leonard 
Grossman has given a lifetime service for 
civil liberties, and Judge Damon Keith, who I 
had the honor to know before I was President, for his life of service in 
civil rights.
    Tonight I would like to talk about a couple of issues that I think 
are profoundly important

[[Page 1895]]

to the question of access to justice and the future of one of its 
cornerstones, the Legal Services Corporation.
    We're all here because we believe equal justice is the birthright of 
every American, but there remains a crying need for the work of the 
Legal Services Corporation to make that principle a reality for all 
citizens, including that little baby. I don't mind having babies cry in 
my speech. [Laughter] The only thing I hate about babies crying is, it 
reminds me how old I am. [Laughter]
    The Legal Services Corporation has been important to my family for a 
long time. In the 1970's, when President Carter was in office, he 
appointed Hillary to the Legal 
Services Corporation Board, and she served as its youngest chair. And in 
all these years, we have cared a great deal about it. Every budget I 
have submitted as President has requested more funding for legal 
services, but every budget passed by Congress--that's the good news, but 
every budget I have passed by Congress has drastically slashed my 
request, and funding has declined by 25 percent since 1996, when 
plainly, the number of people in our country who need access to legal 
services and who can't afford them has substantially increased.
    Again this year the Congress is proposing to flatline or cut the 
budget that I have asked to be increased by $36 million. So if any of 
you know anybody in Congress and you can get me another vote or two, I'd 
appreciate it.
    Now seriously, this is not some sort of abstract concept or, as some 
Members of Congress, I think, honestly believe, just sort of a luxury 
our democracy can do without. It is tens of thousands of Americans who 
seek a lawyer and can't consult with one because they don't have the 
money for it, hardworking people in rural communities or inner cities, 
many of whom have never even seen a lawyer. It is a profound failing in 
our system of justice when we don't provide legal services but we 
continue to maintain we are all equal before the law.
    Obviously, you think lawyers make a difference, or you wouldn't be 
one. And I ask you again, this--for most of our history, since legal 
services came into being, this has not been a partisan issue. And I 
would hope it would not be again. Our country will have a $211 billion 
surplus this year. We can afford $36 million more for legal services.
    But I'd also like to talk about the responsibilities of the 
profession, because the Government can't do all of this alone. Since 
antiquity, lawyers have been expected to give of their time and talent 
pro bono. It is essential for our democracy and the future of this 
profession that everyone who needs a lawyer can get one and that 
everyone who might one day need a lawyer trusts the system will work in 
that event for him or her.
    Over the last decade, our strong economy has actually increased 
pressure, as you know, to bill more hours and cut back on pro bono work. 
Surveys tell us that lawyers at the Nation's highest grossing firms are 
now averaging just 36 hours a year in pro bono work. That is down 
dramatically from the 56 hours averaged in 1992 and well below the 50 
hours recommended by the ABA.
    I know this bar association has been a leader in responding to these 
pressures and meeting the desperate needs for counsel. You created one 
of the largest and best State bar access programs in the entire Nation, 
and I thank you for that. I hope you will continue to advocate this 
position with others in other States who run law firms or work with 
young lawyers. Pro bono work is good experience and good for the 
standing of the profession in the community. It is also vital for our 
democracy.
    I can't help saying, in light of all the publicity that the death 
penalty cases have received lately, this issue is more important than 
ever. The Governor of Illinois declared a 
moratorium on executions in Illinois because there were so many 
questions about whether innocent people had been convicted.
    Many States have failed to adequately fund their public defender 
systems; others have failed to fund them at all. In one of our largest 
States, two attempts to pass public defender systems were actually 
vetoed. And we have to do more. There is a very important piece of 
legislation in the United States Senate today sponsored by the 
Republican and Democratic Senators from Vermont, Senators Leahy and Jeffords, and 
others, which would provide funding for DNA testing and for adequate 
assistance of counsel in all capital cases. And I hope that the bar will 
support that objective.
    Now, let me just say, I couldn't speak before a group of lawyers, 
especially in Michigan, without mentioning what I think is another 
threat to equal justice under the law and to access

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to justice, and that is the Senate slowdown in the consideration and 
confirmation of my nominees to our courts.
    Let me say, I know this is a controversy which has been building for 
some years, which to some extent predated my service as President. This 
was a very important issue to me not only because I've been a lawyer and 
the attorney general of my State, but because I used to teach law, 
criminal law, criminal procedure, admiralty and antitrust, and most 
importantly, constitutional law. And when I became President, I made a 
commitment to myself that I would appoint members to the Federal 
judiciary that were broadly reflective of our country in terms of gender 
and race and other different background experiences, that would meet the 
highest standards of the American Bar Association, and that would be 
essentially nonpolitical, that would be fair and not overly result-
oriented in dealing with cases.
    The judges that I have appointed have gotten more top ABA ratings 
than those of any President in 40 years. And independent analyses have 
demonstrated that they have not been in their decisionmaking 
particularly ideologically driven, unlike the judges that previous 
Presidents have appointed.
    Now, nevertheless, even making allowances for the fact that in 
election years there's normally a slowdown if the President is of one 
party and the Senate is of another, if you look at the whole record, the 
Senate majority has been far less forthcoming with me than Democratic 
Senates were with Presidents Reagan and Bush, even though their nominees 
were, on average, not as highly rated by the ABA as my nominees.
    A blue ribbon panel, moreover, recently found that during the 105th 
Congress, nominations of women and minorities tended to take 2 months 
longer to be considered than those of white males, and minorities were 
rejected twice as often, having nothing to do with their ABA ratings, I 
might add.
    The Senate has 42 nominations before it right now; 34 of those 
people have never even had a hearing; 20 of them have been nominated to 
fill empty seats that have been declared judicial emergencies, places 
where our legal business is not getting done and, therefore, access to 
justice is not fully guaranteed. Two of those judicial emergencies are 
on the sixth circuit, here in Michigan, where one-fourth of the seats 
are vacant.
    But you'd never know it from how the Senate has acted, or refused to 
act. Judge Helene White, who ought to be Judge 
Keith's successor, has waited for a hearing 
for 3\1/2\ years, longer than any nominee in history. She is here 
tonight, I think, and I want to thank her for hanging in there, through 
an ordeal that no one should have to endure. Stand up. [Applause] Thank 
you.
    Kathleen McCree Lewis has been 
waiting a year for her hearing. She would be the first African-American 
woman on the sixth circuit. The ABA unanimously gave her its highest 
rating. Now, if both the Senators from this State would push for a hearing, we might still 
get both of them confirmed, and we could certainly get one of them 
confirmed.
    This is wrong, and what you need to know is that the sixth circuit 
is not alone. Look at the fourth circuit, in the southeastern part of 
our country. It has the highest percentage of African-Americans of any 
Federal circuit in the country. One-third of its judgeships are vacant, 
and although it has the largest percentage of African-Americans of any 
circuit, it has never had a single African-American or, indeed, any 
person of color as a judge.
    For years--I mean, for years and years--I have sent up one qualified 
nominee after another. There are now, still, two well-respected African-
Americans whose nominations are pending from that circuit, Judge James 
Wynn from North Carolina and Roger 
Gregory of Virginia. Those seats are also 
judicial emergencies, but neither nominee has even gotten a hearing.
    Now as I said, in election year, there's always been some slowdown, 
but if you look at the statistics here over the last 5 years, this 
Senate has been far less forthcoming on these nominees than the 
Democratic Senates were with Republican Presidents who were my 
predecessors. And these people are very highly qualified, which leads to 
only one conclusion, that the appointments process has been politicized 
in the hope of getting appointees ultimately to the bench who will be 
more political. This is wrong. It is a denial of justice, and I hope the 
bar will speak out against it strongly.
    Otherwise, I don't have strong feelings about it. [Laughter] Thomas 
Jefferson once said that, ``Equal justice is a vital part of the bright 
constellation that guides our political fates and our

[[Page 1897]]

national life.'' I want to thank you, all of you, for your devotion to 
that goal, for making the law an honorable profession, and for believing 
in equal access.
    I want to especially thank those who have given a lifetime and more, 
in 50 years of service, to the law of the land. I hope that with all the 
prosperity and progress our country enjoys, with all of the social 
indicators moving in the right direction, we will not let the indicator 
of justice move in the wrong direction. I hope that you will continue to 
stand for equal access, work for it, and urge others to follow your 
example.
    Thank you very much, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 7:05 p.m. in the Willow Room at the 
Atheneum Suites Hotel. In his remarks, he referred to Alfred M. 
Butzbaugh, president, Michigan State Bar Association; Judge Harold Hood, 
chair, Michigan Supreme Court Task Force on Racial/Ethnic Issues in the 
Courts; Mayor Dennis W. Archer of Detroit; Leonard Grossman, board 
member, Guild Law Center for Economic and Social Justice; Judge Damon J. 
Keith, former Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit; and 
Gov. George H. Ryan of Illinois.