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“TRIBUTE IN HONOR OF THE LIFE OF BARBARA ALLEN BABCOCK” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E513 on June 4, 2020.
The Department is one of the oldest in the US, focused primarily on law enforcement and the federal prison system. Downsizing the Federal Government, a project aimed at lowering taxes and boosting federal efficiency, detailed wasteful expenses such as $16 muffins at conferences and board meetings.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
TRIBUTE IN HONOR OF THE LIFE OF BARBARA ALLEN BABCOCK
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HON. ANNA G. ESHOO
of california
in the house of representatives
Thursday, June 4, 2020
Ms. ESHOO. Madam Speaker, I rise to honor the life and extraordinary work of Barbara Allen Babcock. Born on July 26, 1938, in Washington, D.C., to Doris Moses and Henry Allen Babcock, she died at her Stanford, California home on April 18, 2020.
Barbara graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Pennsylvania and Yale Law School, where she was one of only 13 women in a class of 175. At Yale, she was an editor of the Law Review and graduated Order of the Coif. Her first job was a clerkship for Judge Henry Edgerton of the U.S. Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit, after which she was a criminal defense associate at Williams and Connolly. She left private practice in 1968 to become the first Director of the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia.
Barbara Babcock joined the faculty of Stanford Law School in 1972, became its first tenured woman professor, and was the Judge John Crown Professor of Law, Emerita, at the time of her death. At Stanford she was beloved by her students, and four times was the recipient of the John Bingham Hurlbut Award for excellence in teaching. She left Stanford for two years during the Carter Administration to serve as Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division in the Department of Justice, and while in that position she advocated for the appointment of Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the United States Court of Appeals. Justice Ginsburg said later, ``I would not hold the good job I have today were it not for Barbara.''
Barbara Babcock was a strong and effective advocate for women and minorities, and an inspiration to thousands of her students and others aspiring to legal careers. So many described her as warm, graceful, a great raconteur and a true friend. She was a leader, a pathbreaker, trailblazer and role model. She was an advocate for the importance of lawyers in society and for clinical education in law school, and helped to found Stanford's first law clinic, now the Stanford Community Law Clinic.
Barbara Babcock was the author of many legal articles and several text books. She also wrote a memoir, Fish Raincoats: A Woman Lawyer's Life, and Woman Lawyer: The Trials of Clara Foltz, about the first woman lawyer in California.
Madam Speaker, I ask the entire House of Representatives to join me in extending our condolences to Barbara Allen Babcock's family and honoring her extraordinary life.
Because of her lifetime of shaping generations to practice and love the law, create a more just society, and an unswerving commitment to see that women advanced in our nation, Barbara Babcock bettered our country immeasurably and will forever be a national treasure.
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