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“TRIBUTE TO JUSTICE JOSEPH RATTIGAN” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Agriculture was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E1085 on May 17, 2007.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
TRIBUTE TO JUSTICE JOSEPH RATTIGAN
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HON. LYNN C. WOOLSEY
of california
in the house of representatives
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Ms. WOOLSEY. Madam Speaker, I rise with sadness today to honor my good friend and respected mentor, Justice Joseph Rattigan, who passed away after a long illness on May 12, 2007, in Santa Rosa, California. He was 87 years old.
Joe Rattigan is a legend in Sonoma County and in California. During a long career as an activist, a civic leader, a State legislator, and a jurist, he earned respect from all whose lives he touched, whether political ally or rival. Known for his eloquence, wit, intelligence, and passion, this remarkable man always had time for people and their concerns. He mentored other lawyers and judges as well as generations of Democratic politicians. In fact, his counsel meant a great deal to me when he unexpectedly volunteered his support in my first congressional primary with a field of nine candidates. His endorsement--unsolicited, unequivocal and from the man widely respected as the dean of Sonoma County politics--instilled in me the confidence I needed to succeed.
Born in 1920, Joe grew up in politics in Washington, DC, where his father was a law partner with Senator O'Mahoney from Wyoming. He attended Catholic University and, after graduating in 1940, worked briefly for the Department of Agriculture before joining the Navy to fight in World War II. He served as an intelligence officer and then commanded a PT boat in the Pacific, earning a decoration for heroism in combat.
After the war, Joe enrolled in Stanford Law School, graduating in 1948. He was part of a post-war generation of young lawyers who settled in California at that time and made their mark on a booming State. He soon joined a Santa Rosa law firm and plunged into local affairs and Democratic politics. He served as president of the Sonoma County Bar Association, county chairman for Adlai Stevenson's 1956 Presidential bid, and a member of the Santa Rosa Board of Public Utilities.
Joe jumped into electoral politics on his own behalf in 1958. He became the youngest State senator in the county's history at age 38, as the Democrats took back the legislature and Edmund G. ``Pat'' Brown became governor, ushering in a new golden era for the California. He served two terms, authoring or co-authoring several key bills, including measures establishing medical care services for the elderly, a model for the Federal Medicare program, the Department of Rehabilitation, and the State university system. In 1960, his last minute maneuvering created Sonoma State College, later University, which is now an integral part of the county as well as of the State's education system.
During his time in the legislature and his subsequent 18 years as a justice on the Court of Appeal for Northern California, Joe fought for the oppressed. Having grown up in a segregated city, he was fiercely opposed to discrimination. He supported the controversial Rumsford Fair Housing Act which ended the use of restrictive covenants in housing. He also carried the one-man, one-vote reapportionment measure that altered the way state senators were elected even at a personal cost. This measure split Sonoma County into two districts, causing Joe to lose his seat.
Principle always came before politics with Joe Rattigan. He fought against the death penalty, attempting to save convicted felon Caryl Chessman when he was a freshman senator. It is widely believed that his principled opposition cost him a seat on the State Supreme Court. During his time as an appellate justice, however, he continued to make a mark on California; for example, he supported separation of church and state (despite his Catholic upbringing), championed a first in the Nation requirement for cities and counties to adopt general plans, and wrote a decision overturning Black Panther Party leader Huey Newton's murder conviction, which was later upheld.
Joe is survived by Elizabeth (Betty), his wife of 65 years, whom he met in the second grade, by his six children--daughters Catharine Kalin and Anne Paine and sons Michael, Thomas, Patrick, and Timothy Rattigan--as well as 12 grandchildren.
Madam Speaker, this week Sonoma County residents mourn the passing of Joseph Rattigan. Whether people agreed with him or not--and many in the far more conservative Sonoma County of the 50s and 60s did not--he was respected for his integrity, his political acumen, his sharp legal mind, and a heart as big as the Golden State. In 1997, the State building in downtown Santa Rosa was named the Joseph Rattigan State Building. I would hope that those who pass who pass through its doors into the bright sunlit foyer will stop for a moment and consider the greatest legacy of Joseph Rattigan: a life that demonstrated that good government isn't only desirable, it is possible.
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