国会记录：2003年5月15日（扩展）Page E960-E961 Damon Keith  - 宪法的监护人______ HON。John Conyers，JR。2003年5月14日星期三哥伦比亚人周三的代表中的密歇根州。扬声器先生，我今天上升，提醒美国我们所有人都欠了佛罗里达州哥伦士·克基特的荣誉达议员，他曾忠于联邦替补席35年。在美国的法律景观中，他的巨型遗产造成了很大的遗产。他的审判员广泛尊重，他的法官，酒吧以及整个土地的知情公民，不仅用于他的宪法奖学金，而且还为他的定罪和他的明智同情的勇气。克伊斯法官有一个真正杰出的职业生涯。最重要的是，他的决定保护了行政行政权利的权利法案;他们已经证明了创始的父亲的智慧，给我们一个独立的司法分支。像他的名字一样，希腊神话的“达蒙”，克基斯的无限爱法则，并坚定地奉献对司法的奉献胜过盟友和对手的尊重。 Judge Keith was appropriately born on the Fourth of July in 1924. He holds a law degree from Howard Law School and a masters degree in law from Wayne State University. Judge Keith's accomplishments and commitment have garnered awards too numerous to enumerate fully. I will cite just a few. Both the State of Michigan and the City of Detroit have repeatedly honored their native son. The Michigan Chronicle chose Judge Keith to represent the legal profession as one of Ten of "The Century's finest Michiganders." The Detroit Legal News recognized him as one of Michigan's 16 "Legal Legends of the Century." In recognition of his dedication to quality education for all, the Detroit Board of Education named the Damon J. Keith Elementary School in his honor. He was honored by the Detroit Urban League with its Edward J. Devitt Distinguished Service to Justice Award. (He was nominated for the Devitt Award by judges and attorneys throughout the country.) The national legal community has equally recognized his contributions to the rule of law and his devotion to the Constitution. In 1990 President George Bush appointed him to the National Commission on the Bicentennial of the Constitution. Judge Keith's rejection of discrimination in any form earned him the Distinguished Public Service Award from the Anti-Defamation League of the B'nai B'rith. The NAACP awarded Judge Keith its highest accolade, the Spingarn Medal (whose previous recipients include Rev. Martin Luther King, Justice Thurgood Marshall and General Colin Powell.) Almost 40 universities and colleges have conferred honorary degrees on Judge Keith. In 1997, The American Bar Association summed up why Judge Keith is universally held in such high esteem when it gave him its prestigious Thurgood Marshall Award: Judge Keith represents the best in the legal profession. His work reflects incisive analysis of issues, principled application of laws and the Constitution, passionate belief in the court's role in protecting civil rights, a commitment to community service and, most significantly, an independence of mind to do what's right that is at the core of his view of professional responsibility. In 2001, the ABA also conferred on Judge Keith its ABA Spirit of Excellence Award. This brief recital illustrates Judge Damon Keith's extraordinary standing within the Bar. In order for you to understand how he has earned that reputation, however, it is helpful to recall several of his most noteworthy opinions. The "Pontiac School Desegregation Case" This weekend, many of us in Detroit will be celebrating the anniversary of the Supreme Court's historic opinion in Brown v. Board of Education, unquestionably one of the greatest of that court's decision in our history. As you well know, however, it took decades of determined labor by many dedicated people to actually implement the proud promise of Brown. They were led, in the North as in the South, by brave federal judges who simply believed that the Constitution, as interpreted by the Supreme Court, must be enforced. Judge Keith's opinion in the Pontiac school desegregation case will always be remembered by those in the struggle as a profile in courage. Judge Keith was not eager to reject the benefits of neighborhood school assignments, nor unmindful of the very strong community feelings. Still, he stayed true to his oath to uphold the Constitution. He enforced the necessary remedies of past de jure school segregation. The "Keith Case" Perhaps Judge Keith's most famous decision is aptly now known among constitutional scholars as the "Keith case." Prior to 1970, every modern President had claimed "inherent Executive power" to conduct electronic surveillance in "national security" cases without the judicial warrant required in criminal cases by the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution. Then Attorney General John Mitchell, on behalf of President Richard Nixon sought to wiretap several alleged "domestic" terrorists without warrants, on the ground that it was a national security matter. Judge Keith rejected this claim of the Sovereign's inherent power to avoid the safeguard of the Fourth Amendment. He ordered the government to produce the wiretap transcripts. When the Attorney General appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Court unanimously affirmed Judge Keith. The Keith decision not only marked a watershed in civil liberties protection for Americans. It also led directly to the current statutory restriction on the Government's electronic snooping in national security cases. The Supreme Court had limited its agreement with Judge Keith that judicial warrants were required in cases involving alleged domestic security threats. The Court left open the question of whether judicial warrants also were required in the case of suspected foreign threats to national security. Nevertheless, the Nixon Administration was afraid to risk a subsequent Supreme Court ruling that they were required in that area, as well. Therefore, President Nixon reluctantly agreed to sign the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act creating a special "FISA Court" to hear applications for warrants in foreign national security cases. The "Haddad Case" Some thirty years later, history has come full circle. Once again, an overreaching Attorney General is undermining the Bill of Rights [[Page E961]] on many fronts, ranging from secret, indefinite detention without charges and denial of counsel to ever-expanding efforts to spy on persons for whom no reasonable suspicion of criminal activity has been established. The Attorney General tells us, in essence, that Americans must choose between the liberties that have made our country great and a superficial sense of security. He is wrong. In the post 9-11 world, millions of Americans are deeply concerned about this current struggle between civil liberty claims and Government claims of national security. The Government's intense efforts to weaken the FISA law, that was birthed by the Keith case, have been a centerpiece of that debate. But the FISA Court aftermath of Judge Keith's 1970 opinion in the Keith case is not the only way in which he has left his indelible mark on the current controversy. One of the starkest examples of this Attorney General's disdain for the Bill of Rights came in the recent Haddad case. In a strongly worded, landmark opinion, Judge Keith, speaking for the United States Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, flatly rejected the Attorney General's claim that it could hold deportation proceedings against Rabih Haddad in secret, beyond the scrutiny of press and public. Once against Judge Keith's deeply-rooted concern for the rule of law was offended. He offered a stern rebuke: Today, the Executive Branch seeks to take this safeguard away from the public by placing its actions beyond public scrutiny * * * The Executive Branch seeks to uproot people's lives outside the public eye and behind a closed door. Then, with characteristically concise eloquence, Judge Keith reminded the Department of Justice, in words headlined around the world, that "Democracies die behind closed doors." When he is not crafting judicial thunderbolts from the bench, Judge Keith and his physician wife Rachel Boone Keith, delight in their three daughters, Gildea, Debbie and Cecile, and in their two granddaughters, Nia and Camara. All those who know Damon Keith delight in him. Mr. Speaker, like so many others whose lives he has touched, I am proud to call Damon Keith a mentor, a friend, and an inspiration. He is indeed a national treasure. ____________________