Edward Kennedy (Gov)
The FBI on Monday released more than 2,200 pages of documents on the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) focusing on the FBI’s relationship with the senator from 1961 to 1985, USA Today reported. The documents are being released following a Freedom of Information Act request by media outlets.
“At no point do these files suggest the FBI investigated Senator Kennedy for a criminal violation or as a security threat,” the FBI said in an introductory statement on its website.
USA Today reported that the summary indicated that the documents include “limited public source information” on the 1969 Chappaquiddick Island car accident that resulted in the death of Mary Jo Kopechne. According to the summary, the bureau had no investigative role in the case.
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Attorney General Eric Holder called on graduates to look at justice as the “abundance of opportunity,” at his commencement address Sunday for the American University Washington College of Law.
“You will be left, then, with only two questions: How? and When? Questions you will answer with the same spirit of service, compassion, and commitment that has defined your time on this campus,” Holder said. “After all, so many of you came to WCL, and to our nation’s capital, to earn a law degree that is not an end unto itself but rather a means toward a larger societal goal.”
Speaking in Bender Arena, where the late Senator Ted Kennedy came to announce his support for Barack Obama in 2008, Holder delivered a largely non-controversial speech. The attorney general only made passing reference to any of the controversial issues currently facing the Justice Department when he told the graduates that they would face challenging legal issues in their careers.
“There are also more systemic threats to our society: terrorists who live only to murder the innocent; an environment so clearly in the balance and at the mercy of mankind; a justice system whose promise of fairness is too often compromised by the large number of defendants who cannot afford or access representation; and the alarming number of children who are exposed to crime, violence, disease, and neglect,” Holder said.
The full prepared remarks are below:
REMARKS AS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY BY ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER
AT THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY WASHINGTON COLLEGE OF LAW COMMENCEMENT
WASHINGTON, D.C.
President Kerwin, Dean Grossman, distinguished faculty, proud fathers and mothers, husbands and wives, siblings and friends, and, most important, the class of 2010. I am honored to stand with each of you and to join you in celebrating a day you have earned and, I’m certain, will never forget. I am also proud to be among the first to welcome you into a profession that will provide countless opportunities for you to hone your new skills, continue your learning process, channel your greatest passions, and improve the world we share. And it gives me great joy to say “way to go” Marilyn Vasquez!
Today, it is a special privilege – not only to be here on this beautiful campus – but to address you all in this particular arena. Nearly two and a half years ago, I was sitting where you are today, watching history unfold. On January 28, 2008, the late Senator Ted Kennedy came to Bender Arena to announce his support for Barack Obama’s improbable, and inspiring, candidacy for the Presidency of the United States.
Senator Kennedy said that he could feel “change…in the air [and] moving across America.” I’ll never forget his words, or the applause that followed them.
Now, as I look out on this sea of blue, I can see five graduates who look a little different, and a bit more distinguished, than the rest – James Day, Paul Ferguson, Francis McDermott, Clyde Henning, and Joseph Hairston. They are not departing graduates. They are returning members of Washington College of Law’s Class of 1960. Fifty years ago, they also moved from this campus – law degrees in hand – at a time when “change [was] in the air” – and not merely a change in party, but also, and more importantly, a change in attitude: about war, about rights, about humanity, and about the law. The Sixties were about to begin.
Like me – a fellow old-timer – these returning graduates can remember when, in June of 1963, another Kennedy – President John Kennedy – also brought history to this campus a visionary, and legendary, commencement speech.
Though “some,” President Kennedy observed, “say that it is useless to speak of world peace or world law or world disarmament,” he argued that, “no problem of human destiny is beyond human beings.”
“Our problems,” he said, “are manmade [and], therefore, they can be solved by man.”
That day, although the eyes of the world were upon this university, President Kennedy spoke directly to students gathered before him. He called on them to reexamine their attitudes and to reconsider their possibilities. He reminded them of their readiness, and responsibility, to serve. And he enlisted their partnership in the pursuit of peace, progress, and – above all – justice.
Today, graduates, I ask the same of you. And, today, I also ask that, for a few minutes, you set aside your concerns about job prospects, though I know they are many; that you set aside the fresh memories of final exams, though I hope they are already fading; and that you instead consider why, of all things in this world, you chose to become lawyers.
Whether you’re imagining a future defending the accused in a courtroom, drafting rulings in your chambers, prosecuting human rights abuses in your homeland, serving the people of your state in Congress, joining the JAG Corps, or something altogether your own, I would wager that your presence here today has something to do with the wisdom President Kennedy offered to future generations half a century ago – only yards away from this very spot.
The obligations that President Kennedy spoke of – “to respect the rights of others and to respect the law of the land” – have now become your charge. This afternoon, as you celebrate everything you’ve achieved and experienced here, I know the last thing you want to think about is your new bond of responsibility. But, starting now, that is what you must do.
Yes, you are entering an uncertain world – one burdened by economic recession but showing signs of recovery. And you are taking leave of this campus in an age, not only of change, but of unprecedented challenge, new threats, and ongoing war. Yet, you must resist the temptation to feel as though you have been dealt a bad hand. What you have been given is a rare chance.
Very soon, you will learn that times of difficulty, of novel questions and new tests, are the most exciting, and consequential, times to be a lawyer. Since our nation’s earliest days, the service and contributions of attorneys – and, very often, of young attorneys – have kept our great American experiment in motion. Throughout America’s history, people your age, with exactly your training, were on the front lines of efforts to abolish slavery and segregation, to secure voting rights for women and civil rights for all, to provide health care for our seniors and our poor, and to guarantee decent wages for our workers. And that’s not only true in America. It is true across the world.
And now, graduates, it’s your turn. And, today, it is your time – to improve the course of our country and world, to strengthen the structures and rules that govern our society, to find the most innovative and effective ways to combat injustice, and to ensure that the change we feel in the air is transformed into substantive progress for the world we all inhabit.
Over the last half century and in the past three years – and even in the months since today’s LLM graduates arrived on campus – our country and world have come far. Consistent, meaningful progress has been made. But the unfortunate fact is that injustice remains. Divisions and disparities remain. And the poorest among us continue to suffer most. For many, economic recovery hasn’t come quickly enough – particularly for your generation, which – I don’t need to tell you – faces fewer job prospects than usual.
There are also more systemic threats to our society: terrorists who live only to murder the innocent; an environment so clearly in the balance and at the mercy of mankind; a justice system whose promise of fairness is too often compromised by the large number of defendants who cannot afford or access representation; and the alarming number of children who are exposed to crime, violence, disease, and neglect.
But while injustice may be everywhere, injustice is not inevitable. Even our most stubborn and complex problems are not intractable. They can, in fact, be solved by the same forces that created them: human beings. Man made problems are susceptible to man made solutions. You are proof of this. And WCL is a living, breathing testament to this age-old truth. At the turn of the last century, when opportunities for women in the legal profession were practically non-existent, two pioneering leaders – Ellen Spencer Mussey and Emma Gillett – changed everything, and overcame the injustices of their day, by establishing this institution.
You know, they weren’t planning to start a law school. But, after they encouraged six young women to apply to study law at Columbian College – now George Washington University – this institution became a necessity. Those six young women were turned away, and denied their dream, because, according to Columbian officials, and I quote, “women did not have the mentality for the law.” Today, I’m proud to see more than half of today’s graduates are women – on this campus, as well as GW’s.
Because of you – the young women and young men before me – the spirit of WCL’s founding fight against injustice is alive and thriving. You’ve spent tens of thousands of hours volunteering to rebuild New Orleans. You’ve shaped human rights laws through your partnership with the United Nations. You’ve worked with the Navajo Nation to provide pro bono legal assistance to tribal communities. And, of course, you prevailed in rooting out the injustice of that original WCL logo redesign.
And, now, you must continue this work. You must continue to serve and empower others. And, above all, you must seize your new opportunity to advance the cause of justice.
This work, I believe, must begin by defining justice. By considering what justice looks like and by asking, What does justice feel like?
Of course, justice feels like June 10, 1963 – when President Kennedy stood on this campus and became the first Cold War President to outline his vision for a freer, fairer, and more peaceful world. But justice also feels like the very next day – June 11, 1963 – on another college campus, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
On that summer morning – at President Kennedy’s orders, at Attorney General Robert Kennedy’s insistence, and with the help of the Department I am now privileged to lead – a young woman named Vivian Malone became one of the first two African-American students to enroll at the University of Alabama. Most of you have seen the dramatic images: Governor Wallace standing in the schoolhouse door, demanding “segregation now” and “segregation forever”; Deputy Attorney General Katzenbach asking him to stand down; then the Alabama National Guard finally demanding he step aside.
Vivian is my late sister-in-law. Long before I knew her personally, long before I married her sister, long before I could fully comprehend or appreciate the significance of that moment, I watched her on the news take those historic steps forward. As she strode through that door, what I saw – and what the entire country saw – was justice being done, finally, for aspiring black college students everywhere.
Justice also feels like October 28, 2009, when President Obama signed the first law in nearly 225 years of the United States Code to refer explicitly to gender identity – the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. On that day, at long last, our prosecutors became newly empowered to protect our nation’s gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered individuals from vicious hate crimes.
I tell you these stories in hopes that they will encourage you to consider, as one final thought exercise before you receive your diplomas, what vision of justice you hold most sacred.
Many of you not only have a vision, but have already acted on it. Carrie Garber began a nonprofit for Cambodian school children. Caleb Medearis already completed – get this – 547 hours of pro bono service. And Adrian Alvarez traveled to the Dominican Republic to enhance freedom of expression. Others have rallied against torture, started much-needed legal clinics, led international human rights law workshops, and brought together judges, activists, and Supreme Court Justices to discuss ways to strengthen our legal system. Members of this class have used their knowledge to teach and tutor high school students in public schools across this city. And a few of you, in your ultimate pursuit of justice, successfully convinced Professor Rice that you deserved a passing grade in his evidence class.
Whatever your vision, whatever your purpose, I call on you – not only today, but throughout your lives – to look at justice as more than simply the absence of injustice, but as the abundance of opportunity.
You will be left, then, with only two questions: How? and When? Questions you will answer with the same spirit of service, compassion, and commitment that has defined your time on this campus. After all, so many of you came to WCL, and to our nation’s capital, to earn a law degree that is not an end unto itself but rather a means toward a larger societal goal.
And you’ve advanced your goals in many different ways – for this is a terrifically diverse class. You come from nearly 50 countries, from Serbia, Syria and Kazakhstan to Denmark, Panama and Iran. You speak 40 languages, including Azerbaijani, Creole, Kiswahili, Urdu and Bambara. You’ve studied or worked abroad in more than 30 countries. And you’ll soon be fanning out to nations across the globe. You are filmmakers, therapists, interpreters, reporters, refugee caseworkers, military officers, archeologists, ministers, candidates for Congress, Misileers, and, my favorite, crypto-logic linguists. There is, quite simply, no limit to what you can accomplish. And there is no more important time to apply your experience.
I understand that, when today’s J.D. graduates first arrived here in 2007, Dean Grossman posed a question to those 1-L students. “What is more exciting,” he asked, “than studying for a career that gives you the opportunity to shape and improve the world?” Today, I’m here to tell you that there is, in fact, something more exciting than studying for this career, and that’s beginning this career.
As of today, you are no longer just students of the law. You are now stewards of our justice system. And I expect a great deal from all of you – especially the three graduates who will soon be coming to the Department of Justice, to work for me.
But whatever you decide to do, whatever path you take, I can think of no more exciting time to be entering the legal profession than in this new decade of the 21st century. You all have the potential – as well as the power that a law degree affords – to improve your own circumstances, to assist and protect others, and to lead our nation, and our world, toward a new era of prosperity, healing, and opportunity.
And so, in the spirit of President Kennedy’s 1963 address, let us, “confident and unafraid… labor on,” together, toward justice for all humankind.
That is your mission – and that, graduates, is your responsibility.
Good luck, and congratulations to you all. Along with Marilyn, I am proud of each and every one of you.
Michael J. Sullivan (Ashcroft Sullivan)
Former U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan (R) has announced he will not run in a special election to succeed the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), The Boston Hearld reported yesterday. Sullivan, who has mentioned as a possible Republican candidate for Kennedy’s open Senate seat, served as Massachusetts’ U.S. Attorney from 2001 to April 19. He now is a partner at the The Ashcroft Group.
Sullivan told the paper, “I went back and forth on it,” adding, “But the deciding factor was I didn’t want to spend my son’s last two high school years like two ships passing in the night.” The Republican field is now narrowed to state Sen. Scott Brown and Canton selectman Robert Burr.
The Democratic-controlled legislature recently passed a law to allow Gov. Deval Patrick (D) to name a successor to serve in Kennedy’s seat until the state can hold a special election on Jan. 19. A state judge ruled that Patrick’s pick — former Democratic National Committee chairman Paul Kirk — could immediately take office, despite the usual 90-day grace-period required before new laws take effect. That ruling has stirred protests from Massachusetts Republicans. Kirk was sworn in as Kennedy’s replacement on Sept. 24. Kirk has said he will not run in the Jan. 19 special election to determine who will finish out Kennedy’s term.
The Democrats who have announced their candidacy for the special election are Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, Rep. Michael Capuano, Boston Celtics co-owner Stephen Pagliuca and Alan Khazei, founder of City Year, youth service organization.
Sullivan predicted the race will be between Coakley and Brown. “Martha Coakley has done a great job as attorney general, and I have a great deal of admiration and respect for her,” adding, “Scott Brown should do extremely well. He’s a very credible candidate and when voters get to know him, they will warm up to him.”
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Edward Kennedy (Gov)
As Massachusetts lawmakers mourn the death of Sen. Edward Kennedy (D) they also are preparing for a battle about his replacement. Namely, how that person will be selected and who that person will be. The how is the more pressing matter right now, according to state Senate Minority Leader Richard Tisei (R).
Current state law calls for a special election in the event of a Senate vacancy, but some Democrats are pushing for the law to be changed to allow Gov. Deval Patrick (D) to appoint the next senator. Bay State residents “don’t want to see election laws changed to benefit one person or party … it erodes people’s confidence,” according to Tisei.
The state Republican Party also hopes the current law stays in place, as Patrick would almost certainly appoint a Democrat. “I think it’s wrong for Democrats to change the law for purely self-serving purposes,” state Republican Party communications director Tarah Donoghue said. She added that Patrick has a “long history of making poor decisions in political patronage” in making his appointments.
In the event the law doesn’t change, a special election would be held. Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin on Thursday presented state lawmakers with a proposed election calendar, The Boston Globe reported. The calendar was drafted after Galvin met with state House Speaker Robert DeLeo (D), state Senate President Therese Murray (D), and top Patrick aides. Under his proposed scheduled, the special election would take place either Jan. 19, with a Dec. 8 primary, or Jan. 26, with a Dec. 15 primary.
According to Galvin, Patrick is legally required to choose one of the two proposed special election dates and then notify local officials by early next week. Under state law, the governor must set the special election process in motion “immediately’’ upon a Senate vacancy, The Globe reported.
Michael J. Sullivan (Ashcroft Sullivan)
Among the names mentioned as possible candidates is former Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan. Sullivan has declined to comment on the possibility of running for the seat, although he did release a statement regarding Kennedy’s passing.
While the state GOP believes it is “too early” to endorse a candidate, according to Donoghue, the state House has scheduled a caucus for Monday to discuss possible candidates, according to state House Assistant Minority Leader George Peterson (R). If former Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey decides to run, she “would be very formidable,” as she would be able to self-finance her campaign, according to Tisei.
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Michael J. Sullivan (Ashcroft Sullivan)
The Boston Globe today mentioned former Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan (R) as a possible Republican candidate for the state’s open Senate The death of Sen. Edward Kennedy (D) late Tuesday means the Bay State will see its first competitive Senate since Sen. John Kerry (D) won election in 1984, the Globe reported.
Sullivan served as U.S. Attorney for most of President George W. Bush’s two terms, from September 2001 until April 17. He is now a partner at The Ashcroft Group, headed by former Attorney General John Ashcroft. Sullivan was previously the district attorney in Plymouth County, Mass., and he also served in the state house.
However, it’s unlikely a Republican will win the seat in heavily Democratic Massachusetts. If Sullivan ran, it would be more of a favor to the party than as a viable candidate, The Globe indicated. “The party could try to persuade former US Attorney Michael Sullivan to seek the post, but his close association with the Bush administration could burden his candidacy,” The Globe wrote.
As he suffered the final stages of brain cancer, Kennedy last week sent a letter to Gov. Deval Patrick (D) and state lawmakers asking for a change in state law to allow the governor to appoint his replacement, The Associated Press reported. Kennedy had sought to have his seat filled quickly so Democrats would have another vote in Congress for health care reform, one of Kennedy’s signature issues.
Sen. Ted Kennedy
But it doesn’t seem Massachusetts lawmakers are inclined to change the law, which requires the governor to call a special election within 145 to 160 days of the seat becoming vacant, The Associated Press reported. The special election must be held within five months, preceded by a primary five or six weeks before the election.
In addition to Sullivan, others Republicans mentioned as candidates for Kennedy’s seat include state Sen. Scott Brown, businessman Jeff Beatty, former Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey and Chris Egan, former U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Cooperation and Development, The Associated Press reported.
Possible Democratic candidates include Kennedy’s widow Victoria, Kennedy’s nephew former Rep. Joseph Kennedy II, former Rep. Martin Meehan, Reps. Stephen Lynch and Michael Capuano and Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, The Globe reported. Reps. Edward Markey, James McGovern and William Delahunt also have been mentioned as possible candidates.
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Assistant Majority Leader Sen. Dick Durbin has been one of the Senate’s most passionate voices against Bush-era detention policies. But don’t expet the Illinois Democrat to use his chairmanship of a newly revived Senate Judiciary human rights subcommittee as a partisan bully pulpit.
Durbin (in background) gave up the crime subcommittee to Specter
Instead, Durbin said he will work with Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) to find common ground on an agenda. He’s taking the gavel of the subcommittee for a second time, after giving up chairmanship of the plum Judiciary crime subcommittee to party-switching Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.)
The human rights panel plans to address child soldiers, genocide, sexual violence and human trafficking — all concerns Coburn shares as well. In particular, conservatives and liberals have come together to fight international human trafficking, including the forced prostitution of women.
“While we had some legislative success, far more needs to be done,” Durbin said in a statement last month after he received the subcommittee gavel again. “We will continue to work on these and other issues as we try to ensure that America remains committed to human rights both at home and abroad.”
Coburn said he is please the subcommittee has been revived.
“We have a lot of issues we need to look at it,” Coburn said in an interview.
Tom Malinowski, Washington director for the Human Rights Watch which worked with the panel in the past, said he hopes the reestablished subcommittee will continue the work it did in the last Congress that led to the enactment of the Genocide Accountability Act and the Child Soldiers Accountability Act, which targeted world leaders who engaged in severe human rights abuses.
He said that while the subcommittee tackled many weighty issues, it avoided some topics that could have caused severe divisions between subcommittee Democrats and Republicans, such as the Bush administration’s policies on indefinite prisoner detentions, which Durbin openly criticized.
“Durbin made a point of choosing issues that Sen. Coburn was interested in working on,” Malinowski said.
Helping the senators to develop an agenda will be majority chief counsel Joseph Zogby and minority chief counsel Brooke Bacak. Zogby was previously the chief counsel for the human rights and the law subcommittee and then served the brief stint as Durbin’s chief counsel on crime and drugs subcommittee. Mary Harned previously held the minority post.
The Justice Department will also continue to work with the subcommittee. During the 110th Congress, members of the Civil and Criminal divisions often testified before the subcommittee.
“We look forward to working with the subcommittee on human rights and the law on the important issues it may address,” DOJ spokesperson Alejandro Miyar wrote in an e-mail.
Although there will be some familiar faces working with the subcommittee, not all the subcommittee members from the 110th Congress have rejoined the panel.
There were six Democrats and five Republicans on the subcommittee in the 110th Congress. Now, joining Durbin and Coburn will be four Democrats and two Republicans – Sens. Specter (D-Pa.), Russ Feingold (D- Wisc.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Ted Kaufman (D-Del.), John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) Graham and Sen. John McCain sponsored legislation in 2005 that would have banned the harsh interrogation methods used against suspected terrorists.
Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) are missing from the subcommittee because they no longer sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Also, Sens. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) will not return to the panel.
The decision of Specter to leave the Republican Party led to the reestablishment of the subcommittee in May, after Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) disbanded the two-year-old panel in February.
“With the change of administrations, and the transition to this new Congress, we are not continuing the subcommittee,” Leahy said in testimony before the Judiciary Committee in February. “No one should confuse that with a lack of commitment to the human rights agenda.”
The subcommittee was the loser in a game of musical chairs.
Biden was the chair of the crime and drugs subcommittee in the 110th Congress. He relinquished his gavel to Durbin after becoming vice president. The Illinois senator then had to give up his human rights and the law subcommittee chairmanship because Democratic rules didn’t allow him to hold more than one Judiciary subcommittee gavel.
Durbin, in turn, relinquished his crime and drugs subcommittee to Specter in May. He’d held hearings on sentencing dispairities between federal crack and powder cocaine offenses and Mexican drug cartels before handing the gavel to Specter. Durbin said his said the move was not meant to appease the long-serving Pennsylvanian, who’d been stripped of his seniority by the Democratic caucus after switching parties.
“I raised this issue long before feathers were ruffled,” Durbin said at a pen-and-pad session with reporters in May.
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