Robert P. Griffin

Robert Paul Griffin

Robert Paul Griffin (born November 6, 1923 in Detroit , Michigan , † April 16, 2015 in Traverse City , Michigan) was an American lawyer and politician ( Republican Party ) who represented the state of Michigan in both chambers of Congress .

Life

After attending school in Garden City and Dearborn , Griffin first worked in the auto industry on the assembly line before studying at Central Michigan College . During the Second World War he was used as a member of an infantry division in Europe. On his return he resumed his interrupted studies and graduated from Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant in 1947 . At the Law School of the University of Michigan he laid 1950 his law from -Examen and was admitted to the Bar Association. He began practicing as a lawyer in Traverse City, where he died in April 2015 at the age of 91.

politics

1956 Robert Griffin was elected to the US House of Representatives for the Republican Party ; he represented there the 9th District of the state of Michigan . Together with MP Phillip M. Landrum , he drafted the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959, which strictly controlled internal union affairs and which became known as the Landrum-Griffin Act . The law emerged as a result of the sensational hearings of the United States Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor and Management , which dealt not least with the connections of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters under Jimmy Hoffa to organized crime.

Within the Republican Party, Griffin was one of Gerald Ford's supporters . After several re-elections, Griffin resigned in May 1966 to succeed the late Senator Patrick V. McNamara . In November of the same year Griffin prevailed in the Senate elections in Michigan over the Democratic candidate G. Mennen Williams ; He was supported thereby by a rock band from Detroit, as campaign advertising the title "Youth and Experience" (youth and experience) on a flexi disc brought out.

In 1972 he was re-elected, before leaving office on January 2, 1979 after losing to the Democrat Carl Levin .

In 1968, Griffin organized the filibuster in the Senate against the appointment of Abe Fortas as the highest constitutional judge . From 1969 to 1977 he served as a whip for the Republican faction. In 1974, during the Watergate affair , he issued a public letter urging President Richard Nixon to resign. In 1976 he ran as a spokesman for the minority faction in the Senate , but was defeated by Howard H. Baker Jr.

Judicial office

Griffin initially practiced as a lawyer in Traverse City again. From 1987 to 1994 he was a judge on the Michigan Supreme Court . His son Richard also embarked on a legal career and has been a member of the Federal Court of Appeals for the sixth judicial district since 2005 .

Web links

• Robert P. Griffin in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Dennis Hevesi: Robert P. Griffin Dies at 91; Senator Urged Nixon to Quit. In: The New York Times, April 17, 2015 (accessed April 18, 2015).