December 9, 1971
Page 45770
JUSTICE BRANDEIS – ADDRESS BY SENATOR MUSKIE
Mr. RIBICOFF. Mr. President, last month, the distinguished Senator from Maine (Mr. MUSKIE) addressed the annual Brandeis University dinner. His eloquent remarks were more than a testimonial to a great jurist – but a tribute to the ideals for which Louis Brandeis lived.
Senator MUSKIE reminded his audience that Brandeis not only represented judicial excellence, but as a Jew was devoted to what was in his lifetime only a dream – the creation of a Jewish state.
Commenting on the reality of Israel today, Senator MUSKIE reasserted his support for greater American diplomatic and military assistance to Israel and called for a reversal of the administration's "senseless decision to put more pressure on Israel and less pressure on Cairo which moves us further from peace, not closer."
In his address, Senator MUSKIE called attention to Brandeis' pursuit of social justice and individual freedom for all Americans, worthy goals for all of us.
I am pleased to call my colleagues' attention to the Senator from Maine's speech and I ask unanimous consent that the full text be inserted in the RECORD.
There being no objection, the address was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:
TO STAND IN THE BRANDEIS TRADITION
I am proud to join you tonight at the Twenty-Second Annual Brandeis Dinner – to speak with you about a remarkable past and to work with you in building the future of a great American university.
Since the hopeful spring of 1948, when the Jewish people founded a college in the countryside of Massachusetts and a homeland in the desert half a world away, Brandeis University has stood for all that is new and good in higher education . . .
For the breakdown of barriers which deny poor and minority students a decent change.
For the freedom to teach and to learn in an atmosphere untrammeled by political or ideological doctrine ...
And for the creation of a just society ... worthy of the young men and women who will inherit it.
But Brandeis is more than a distinguished university. It is also the namesake and the symbol of one of those very few, very special men who define the history and the heritage of America.
Louis Brandeis died before most of the students in Waltham were born. They read his words only when an occasional assignment requires reference to a Court decision. They speak his name only when others ask what school they attend. They see his image only in the bronze statue on the hill in front of Sherman Hall – and they see him, if at all, as nothing more than a figure from the fading past.
But Louis Brandeis is very much a part of our future. His parents escaped the oppression of central Europe in 1848 to seek the refuge of freedom in America. Like my own father and mother fifty years later, they taught their son to catch the spirit that moved our country and to care for the people who found hope and decency in this land.
Brandeis devoted his public life to those people – to their human rights and their personal dignity. He fought for the same fundamental equality that we must fight for today. And his efforts were inspired by the same faith and vision that later gave birth to Brandeis University.
So tonight, as we look ahead to the next twenty-three years in Waltham and in the country, we should pause for a few minutes and look back to the Brandeis tradition.
The talents and ideals of Louis Brandeis took him into countless areas of social importance . . more than I could mention here. But three of his many lives bear a special relevance to the kind of world we hope to shape in the 1970's – his life as a Jew . . . his life as a Justice ... and his life as a public servant.
For many years, as a leader of the Zionist movement in America, Brandeis worked for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. He was always aware of his heritage – of the four thousand years of joy and pain which had combined to make him a Jew. And he saw that only the protection of nationhood could ultimately preserve the ageless traditions of the Hebrew people.
Brandeis did not live to witness the birth of the state he helped to create. But he was always more concerned about today's challenge than yesterday's triumph. And so he left us with the challenge of safeguarding the life and strength of Israel . . .
Not just because Israel's independence serves our interests, but because it serves the interests of every nation ...
Not for Jews alone, but for all humanity...
And not with mere words and promises, but in our actions and our deeds.
That is why we must help to sustain the prosperity of Israel and ease the burdens which threaten to undermine one of history's most stunning economic miracles.
That is why we must provide the tools to do the work of survival and send the Phantom jets to Israel now.
And that is why the Nixon Administration must stop undermining Israel's bargaining position.
The President must reverse the senseless decision to put more pressure on Israel and less pressure on Cairo, which moves us further from peace, not closer. And Israel must become as certain of our support as she is of her own resolution.
Brandeis joined in the effort to end two thousand years of homelessness. Now we must stand in the Brandeis tradition – to guarantee that the children of Israel have and hold their promised land forever.
Brandeis knew that the Jewish people could find freedom and peace in the Middle East. But he also believed that people from all religions and all races could build a decent nation here in America. And his life was an eloquent witness to that belief. On June 5, 1916, Louis Brandeis took his place in his country's destiny, when he became the first Jew to sit on the United States Supreme Court.
He served the Court as he served his faith, with absolute respect for its traditions and its heritage. He thought of the Supreme Court as the one institution in our society insulated from the passions and tides of politics and the caprice of personal ideology. "I have no rigid social philosophy, " he explained. "I have been too intent on the concrete problems of practical social justice."
Brandeis had no tolerance for anyone who showed less than his own respect for the Court. He spoke out against what he called "the subtle encroachments of men of great zeal" who aimed to bend the Court's integrity to their own purposes.
We could use his voice today. He would have been appalled by the exploitation of the Supreme Court in the last three years . . .
By the selection of some nominees who lacked the depth and objectivity to reach conclusions which serve the country and no one else.
By the attempt to make a seat on the Supreme Court a gift to a political region or a hostage to hardened judicial ideology.
By the willingness to surrender constitutional principles and human rights to domestic political concerns.
Last month, the President named two men to the Court . . . one an outstanding leader in legal affairs – the other a lawyer with at least the intellectual talents Brandeis would have demanded. Though I have other doubts about William Rehnquist, I have no questions about his competence.
But we must all question the leadership of the President who appointed these men because public opinion forced him to – not because he shared Louis Brandeis' reverence for the Constitution and the Court. President Nixon has yet to stand in the Brandeis tradition – to recognize that he has an obligation to the Court he is sworn to protect, as well as to the voters he wishes to influence.
But Louis Brandeis stood for more than judicial excellence and the promise of Israel. He was also deeply concerned with the quality of life in America.
By the time he was twenty, after compiling the highest grade average in the history of the Harvard Law School, Brandeis had established one of the most successful law practices in Boston. In the years that followed, he amassed a fortune representing corporate clients. But at the age of forty – in the midst of social, turmoil, of strikes and violence and the pains of growth he abandoned his private practice and took the American people as his only client. He had incredible vision – Franklin Roosevelt called him Isaiah, the Prophet – and he perceived fifty years ago the dangers which still surround us.
Brandeis was a prophet in the struggle for individual liberty. With his law partner, he defined and created a new legal concept – the right to privacy. He argued that every citizen should be safe from unwarranted surveillance and prying. And he convinced the Courts.
And now, more than ever, we must stand in the Brandeis tradition – and fight for every American's right to be left alone. When a CBS reporter named Daniel Schorr is subjected to a full field security check because he reports facts which upset the White House – when a Harvard Law Professor named Laurence Tribe becomes the object of federal harassment because he exposes the mediocrity of a Supreme Court nominee – when credit bureaus and employers and government agencies keep personal files on countless citizens – then the Brandeis plea for privacy must be heard and heeded again. We must speak up – and we must stand in the Brandeis tradition.
Brandeis was also a prophet for the people who are now demanding more power over their own lives.
He fought to protect the rights of individuals against the exploitation of large and powerful interests. "Some men buy yachts," he once said, "others collect fine paintings and precious works of art, but I consider my hobby or pleasure the pursuit of the public interest."
And we must make the cause of Brandeis the cause of every American. Together, we must wage his fight–
To redistribute wealth and power in this society ...
To develop a tax system which no longer lets some millionaires pay less than their secretaries ...
To develop a welfare system which will never again permit another year like last year, when the number of people in poverty actually increased ...
To use our economic greatness to help the many who are in need instead of the few who are already well-off.
Louis Brandeis dreamed of a fair and good America ... of at least one place on this planet where there could be full justice for the least member of our society. He never defined his country by the wrong that it did – only by the right that it could do. And he devoted his energy and his genius to improving the lives of other human beings. He sought justice through the law and on the Supreme Court. He sought peace and hope in the Middle East. And he sought compassion and equality at home.
By the time of his death, Brandeis had moved America in the right direction. Now all of us must work to make a nation's plan from the Brandeis dream.
You have started in Waltham, Massachusetts at the school which bears his name. Brandeis University has always been a symbol of change and progress. The students have sometimes expressed their hopes and frustrations in disruptive and even violent ways. But most of them have sought to reform their country in peace and with respect. For twenty-three years, the students at Brandeis have stood in the Brandeis tradition. You have built well – for them – and for America. And in the years to come, that may make all the difference.