Lindsey Graham
Lindsey Graham | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Senior Senator, South Carolina | |
| In office January 2003–Present | |
| Preceded by | J. Strom Thurmond |
| Succeeded by | Incumbent (2009) |
| Personal details | |
| Nationality | american |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | none |
Lindsey Olin Graham (born July 9, 1955) is an American politician from South Carolina. A member of the Republican Party noted for having maverick appeal despite his conservative views, he is currently the senior United States Senator from that state. He serves on the Armed Services and Judiciary committees.
Personal life
Born in Central, South Carolina, Graham graduated from the University of South Carolina at Columbia with a B.A. in Psychology in 1977 and from its school of law with a J.D. in 1981, and eventually entered private practice as a lawyer.
Military service
He has been involved in the United States Air Force since 1982, serving in it until 1988, and later in the South Carolina Air National Guard and as an Air Force reservist. During the Gulf War, he was recalled to active duty, serving as a Judge Advocate at McIntire Air National Guard Station in Eastover, South Carolina, where he helped brief departing pilots on the laws of war. In 2004, Graham received a promotion to Colonel in the US Air Force Reserves at a White House ceremony by President George W. Bush along with Indiana Congressman Steve Buyer, who was promoted to Colonel in the US Army Reserves.
Political career in the House of Representatives and the Senate
In 1992, Senator Graham was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives and in 1994 to the United States House of Representatives, where he quickly became powerful as a member of the Judiciary Committee during the impeachment of President Bill Clinton in 1998. Graham opposed some articles, but vigorously supported others. In January and February of 1999, after two impeachment articles had been passed by the full House, he was one of the managers who brought the House's case to Clinton's trial in the Senate. Though the Senate did not convict Clinton, Graham became nationally known.
He was reelected to the House in 1996, 1998 and 2000. In 2002, upon the retirement of the long-serving Senator Strom Thurmond, the much younger Graham defeated his Democratic opponent, Alex Sanders, and became South Carolina's first new United States Senator in thirty-six years.
Graham is currently a major supporter of amnesty for illegal aliens and increasing legal immigration levels. Graham is a cosponsor of S. 1033, which would grant the largest amnesty and immigration increase in history. Other cosponsors include Ted Kennedy, Barack Obama, and John McCain.
Legislative and Congressional Committees on which Graham has served
SC House of Representatives: Judiciary Committee
US House of Representatives
- U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce 1995-2002
- U.S. House Committee on International Relations 1995-1998
- U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security1995-1997 (National Security at the time)
- U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary 1997-2002
- U.S. House Committee on Armed Services 1999-2002
U.S. Senate
- United States Senate Committee on Health Education, Labor, and Pensions 2002-2004
- United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary 2002-present
- United States Senate Committee on the Armed Services 2002-present
- United States Senate Committee on the Budget 2004-present
Independent status
Though his stances are often conservative, he has gained a reputation for being a maverick and speaking out against or criticizing the party line, as well as being open to making compromises. This has landed him in a select group of other traditionally conservative Republicans such as Senators John McCain and Chuck Hagel who are widely acknowledged as "mavericks" for their fearlessness toward party pressure.
Gang of 14
On May 23 2005, Graham was one of the Gang of 14 senators to forge a compromise on the Democrats' use of the judicial filibuster, thus blocking the Republican leadership's attempt to implement the so-called "nuclear option". Under the agreement, the Democrats would retain the power to filibuster a Bush judicial nominee only in an "extraordinary circumstance", and the three most conservative Bush appellate court nominees (Janice Rogers Brown, Priscilla Owen and William Pryor) would receive a vote by the full Senate. Despite being one of the Senate's more conservative members, he worked on the deal with seven other Democrats to prevent the "nuclear option" from occurring. This has led to anger among the GOP conservative base in his home state.
Guantanamo Bay Involvement
It was Graham, the former Judge Advocate, who uncovered previously classified memos showing that military lawyers opposed as illegal the George W. Bush White House's orders to use harsh methods to interrogate prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Graham's request produced the declassification and release of the memos in July 2005. One of the memoranda, authored by the deputy judge advocate general of the Air Force, Maj. Gen. Jack Rives, said several of the "more extreme interrogation techniques, on their face, amount to violations of domestic criminal law" as well as military law, according to the New York Times. Rives also wrote that executing the White House's orders "puts the interrogators and the chain of command at risk of criminal accusations abroad."
More recently, Graham authored an amendment to a Department of Defense Authorization Act restricting the authority of American courts to review applications of habeas corpus by "enemy combatants," effectively nullifying a June 2004 U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing detainees to file habeas corpus petitions to challenge their detentions. The amendment passed by a vote of 49-42 in the Senate, sparking outrage among many human rights groups and legal scholars. High-profile legal scholars including Judith Resnik of Yale Law School, David Shapiro and Frank Michelman of Harvard Law School, and Burt Neuborne of New York University Law School circulated a letter describing the legislation in the starkest of terms:
"The Graham amendment embodies an effort to alter fundamental precepts of our constitutional order. It consigns the protection of fundamental human liberties to unilateral executive determination."
The amendment was itself amended by Democratic Senator Carl Levin so that it would not strip the courts of their jurisdiction in cases like Hamdan v. Rumsfeld that had already been granted cert; this compromise version passed by a vote of 84-14, though it did little to satisfy many critics of the original language. The Graham-Levin amendment, combined with Republican Senator John McCain's amendment banning torture, became known as the Detainee Treatment Act. Verbal statements by Senators at the time of the amendment's passage (as well as the many additional votes supporting the bill) indicated that Congress believed that Levin's changes would protect the courts' jurisdiction over cases like Hamdan, though Levin and his cosponsor Senator Kyl placed in the Congressional Record a statement indicating that there would be no change. Graham indicated to the Supreme Court that this statement was given verbally before Congress, an assertion flatly contradicted by video footage of the Senate at the time.[1]
The question is important because it determines whether over 300 detainees at Guantanamo will have an opportunity to challenge their detentions and also because Graham's bill pushes the boundaries of Congress's power over the courts.[2] In oral argument, the Supreme Court seemed highly skeptical of Graham's interpretation.[3]
Alito Confirmation Hearings
During the Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings for Judge Samuel Alito for a seat on the United States Supreme Court, Graham was accused by Democrats of having coached Alito before the hearings. Graham did express his support for him during the hearings. One of the most controversial moments of the hearings occurred when Graham asked Alito, "Are you really a closet bigot?" Alito answered no and Graham continued his statement by expressing his opinion that Alito definitely was not a bigot. Alito’s wife cried and left the hearing briefly.
Rosemary Alito, the judge's sister, said that her sister-in-law took the comments as a message of support. Rosemary responded with: "Martha understood them to be kind comments." "It was that expression of warmth, the feeling of support for Sam, that triggered an emotional response." After Samuel Alito's participation in the hearings ended, Martha-Ann Alito gave Graham a quick hug and he responded that he planned to give her children a book compiling "all the documents that we have from so many different people saying nice things about her husband." [4]
External links
- Official website
- Senate Republican Caucus Senator Lindsey Graham
- "Swing Conservative: The perilous bipartisanship of Lindsey Graham." Washington Monthly, April 2005
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