{"database": "openregs", "table": "congressional_record", "rows": [["CREC-1998-12-18-pt1-PgE2346-2", "1998-12-18", 105, 2, null, null, "DEATH OF JUDGE A. LEON HIGGINBOTHAM", "HOUSE", "EXTENSIONS", "ALLOTHER", "E2346", "E2347", "[{\"name\": \"Maxine Waters\", \"role\": \"speaking\"}]", null, "144 Cong. Rec. E2346", "Congressional Record, Volume 144 Issue 154 (Friday, December 18, 1998)\n\n[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 154 (Friday, December 18, 1998)]\n[Extensions of Remarks]\n[Pages E2346-E2347]\nFrom the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]\n\n                  DEATH OF JUDGE A. LEON HIGGINBOTHAM\n\n                                 ______\n\n                           HON. MAXINE WATERS\n\n                             of california\n\n                    in the house of representatives\n\n                       Friday, December 18, 1998\n\n  Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I am deeply saddened to bring to my\ncolleagues' attention the death of my good friend, Judge A. Leon\nHigginbotham on Monday, December 14, 1998. Judge Higginbotham was one\nof the ``true giants'' of the civil rights struggle. Judge Higginbotham\nwas a leading legal scholar, author, historian and professor in\naddition to his stellar twenty-nine year career on the federal bench.\n  Judge Higginbotham believed that the law was the vehicle to right the\nwrongs he experienced growing up under segregation. According to\nstories that Judge Higginbotham often recounted, the President of\nPurdue University flatly told him in his freshman year of college that\nthe school was not required under law to provide black students with\nheated dormitories and, therefore, never would. The Judge said that\nparticular experience persuaded him to become a lawyer.\n  Judge Higginbotham was committed to a practice of law which he viewed\nas a commitment to social justice. He held deep convictions and\ncontinually fought for the underdog. He argued for justice and\nfairness. Judge Higginbotham was a friend to members of the\nCongressional Black Caucus. He was always available with an analysis of\nthe issue that only he could articulate. Judge Higginbotham helped us\nwith many projects after his retirement from the bench. The most\nnotable was his preparation of an amicus brief in the voting rights\ncase Shaw vs. Reno.\n  Judge Higginbotham was a frequent witness here on Capitol Hill. His\nmost recent testimony was two weeks ago, Tuesday, December 1, 1998, in\nfront of the House Judiciary Committee. As he often did, Judge\nHigginbotham provided clear, insightful testimony. In his opening\nstatement, he asked the Members to listen to ``Luther Standing Bear, a\nmember of the Lakota Tribe, who said, `Thought comes before speech'\nwhen dealing with one of the most important constitutional issues which\nthis committee will ever have, to pause and to give thought before you\nspeak and before you vote,'' truer words have never been spoken. ``I am\npleased to have broken protocol at the end of Judge Higginbotham's\nopening statement to give him a rousing round of applause. Who would\nhave thought this would be the last time I would see this great man\nalive?''\n  Recently Judge Higginbotham has stated that he felt many of the\nadvances he had applauded over his long legal career were endangered by\nthe cutbacks in affirmative action and reduced opportunities for black\nlawyers and judges. He further stated in an article in The New York\nTimes Magazine, ``I witnessed the birth of racial justice in the\nSupreme Court and here now, after 45 years as a lawyer, judge and law\nprofessor, I sometimes feel as if I am watching justice die.''\n  When I read today that Judge Higginbotham's first meeting with former\nSupreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall was during the ominous Sweatt\nvs. Paine Supreme Court case, I realized his previous statement was\nhauntingly true. The 1950 case was whether the court should compel the\nstate of Texas to admit a black student to the University of Texas Law\nSchool. The 1995 Supreme Court case, Hopwood vs. State of Texas, was\nabout a white student suing the University of Texas Law School for\nadmission above their affirmative action rules. It scares me, as it\nscared Judge Higginbotham to see this happen right before my eyes.\n  I have long been a proponent of affirmative action, but I am even\nmore resolute in my fight to ensure the continuation of affirmative\naction to make Judge A. Leon Higginbotham's legacy is never abandoned.\nWe cannot sit idly by and allow affirmative action in the United States\nto\n\n[[Page E2347]]\n\nbe erased. Judge A. Leon Higginbotham's legacy is too important.\n\n                          ____________________"]], "columns": ["granule_id", "date", "congress", "session", "volume", "issue", "title", "chamber", "granule_class", "sub_granule_class", "page_start", "page_end", "speakers", "bills", "citation", "full_text"], "primary_keys": ["granule_id"], "primary_key_values": ["CREC-1998-12-18-pt1-PgE2346-2"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 9.923743084073067, "source": "Federal Register API & Regulations.gov API", "source_url": "https://www.federalregister.gov/developers/api/v1", "license": "Public Domain (U.S. Government data)", "license_url": "https://www.regulations.gov/faq"}