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“TRIBUTE TO MR. PETER SMITH” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E1585 on July 24, 2003.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
TRIBUTE TO MR. PETER SMITH
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HON. JOHN LEWIS
of georgia
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, July 23, 2003
Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize a great contributor to civil rights and to the empowerment of people in this country. Peter Smith has worked for almost forty years to promote civil rights and to provide legal services to those who have traditionally been denied such access--African Americans and other minorities, the poor, juveniles, and those with disabilities.
In his Cornell Law School graduating class, he was one of the very few who chose to turn their backs on the prestige and financial rewards that would come to those who entered private law practice. In a period of our history where the fashion was ``me first'', Mr. Smith has without exception put ``you first.'' And for four decades, the ``you'' was individuals who for reasons of race, poverty, age or disability were denied equal access.
In 1964, having worked there earlier during law school, Mr. Smith joined the staff of the Civil Rights Division of the US Department of Justice. As a member of the small and elite Appeals and Research Section, he wrote and argued appeals in some of the most significant cases in the civil rights struggle of the 1960s and played a role in drafting the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
In 1966, again breaking new ground, Peter Smith joined the first legal services appellate section in the nation. He argued before the Supreme Court of the United States the landmark case that brought an end to welfare residence requirements. The work that he did in public housing and welfare reform continues to this day to promote the quality of lives of those people who are dependent upon government policy for their very survival.
After five years of working to deliver legal services to those who, because they were poor or minorities, were denied access to such services, Mr. Smith concluded that the problems would never be solved unless the private bar was brought into the struggle. After much effort, he convinced an establishment Baltimore law firm to open a branch office in Baltimore's inner city that would deliver legal services to the underserved the same way the rest of the firm delivered legal services to the privileged. That office, under Smith's leadership, became a model for a number of other law firms in the country.
In 1972, Mr. Smith joined the faculty of the University of Maryland School of Law and, almost immediately, created one of the first clinical legal education programs in the nation--a program with two parallel goals. The first goal was to change the way that law students were educated, by creating an opportunity for students to practice law, representing clients, while under very close supervision--a model that the medical community had long used. The second, and equally important goal was to deliver legal services to a class of people who ordinarily did not have access to such services--juveniles. Smith operated the Juvenile Law Clinic until 1979, representing many clients in administrative and judicial proceedings including before the Supreme Court of the United States where he helped to guarantee key legal rights for juveniles.
Almost without exception, the students who went through his clinic consider that experience to be the most significant of their law school education. In 1979 he spent a sabbatical in England helping to develop clinical legal education there.
In 1991, Smith returned to his childhood home in New Hampshire where he assumed a new challenge--to provide legal services to yet another segment of American society that traditionally had been denied that access--individuals with disabilities whose legal problems were related to their disability. For the last few years Mr. Smith has narrowed that focus even more, representing parents of children with disabilities in cases where the school district was not complying with federal law.
Mr. Speaker, on April 27th, Peter Smith celebrated his 65th birthday. While he continues to actively practice law, delivering legal services to those who have so long been denied that access, I did not want this occasion to pass without acknowledging his long service promoting civil rights for minorities, the poor and the disabled.
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