|
William French Smith (August 26, 1917 – October 29, 1990) was an American lawyer. He was the 74th United States Attorney General. ==Biography== Smith was born in Wilton, New Hampshire on August 26, 1917, and raised in Boston. He received his B.A. degree in economics, summa cum laude, from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1939, and his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1942. Smith was a direct descendant of Urian Oakes, the fourth president of Harvard College. His father, who died when Smith was 6, was president of the Mexican Telephone and Telegraph Co., whose headquarters were in Boston. From 1942 to 1946, Smith served in the United States Naval Reserve, reaching the rank of lieutenant. In 1946 he joined the law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP in Los Angeles, one of the largest in the area. He eventually, became a senior partner and a top administrator of the firm, which at one time had 250 lawyers. He met Mr.Ronald Reagan before the 1966 campaign for governor, eventually becoming a member of the influential circle of advisers who formed the new Governor's, "kitchen cabinet". In 1968, Governor Reagan appointed him to the University of California Board of Regents. He later served three terms as chairman. Then eventually on December 11th, in 1980, he was nominated as the 74th Attorney General by the then elected, President of the United States, Ronald Reagan. He assumed his post at the United States Department of Justice, on January 23rd in 1981, serving until February 25, 1985. He pursued a strong anticrime initiative, increasing the resources used to fight the distribution and sale of illegal narcotics by 100 percent. Furthermore, he successfully lobbied for the establishment of a commission to create new federal sentencing guidelines. Major contributions were: supported Reagan's welfare reform program, recommended a comprehensive crime package, of more than 150 administrative and legislative initiatives, which included a federal death penalty, the denial of bail for certain types of crimes, the modification of the rule barring the use of illegally seized evidence in criminal trials, mandatory prison sentences for crimes involving the use of guns, and the use of private Internal Revenue Service information in combating organized crime; designed an immigration and refugee policy , announced a more lenient attitude towards corporate mergers in order to make government more responsive to the concerns of business, opposed anti competitive practices, modified the Freedom of Information Act of 1966, amongst many others. Notable are immigration bill and the crime bill of 1984. He also was the one who got the FBI into drug enforcement. The wealthy, white-haired Smith concentrated on getting more money for his department, beefing up federal efforts against drug trafficking and pursuing a policy with the Immigration and Naturalization Service to bring the nation's borders under control. President Ronald Reagan in his remarks Announcing Federal Initiatives Against Drug Trafficking and Organized Crime, October 14, 1982, said; ''"A few months ago Attorney General William French Smith and his staff, in collaboration with the Treasury Department, put together final plans for a national strategy to expose, prosecute, and ultimately cripple organized crime in America. And I want to announce this program today. It is one that outlines a national strategy that I believe will bring us very close to removing a stain from American history that has lasted nearly a hundred years."'' ''"I will ask that the Attorney General be required to submit a yearly report to the people, through the President and the Congress, on the status of the fight against organized crime and organized criminal groups dealing in drugs. This requirement, although simple and inexpensive, will establish a formal mechanism through which the Justice Department will take a yearly inventory of its efforts in this area and report to the American people on its progress."'' ''"The American people want the mob and its associates brought to justice and their power broken—not out of a sense of vengeance, but out of a sense of justice; not just from an obligation to punish the guilty but from an even stronger obligation to protect the innocent; not simply for the sake of legalities but for the sake of the law that is the protection of liberty."''〔http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=43127〕 Smith was a member of the American Law Institute, American Judicature Society, and the Institute of Judicial Administration's Board of Fellows, as well as a fellow of the American Bar Foundation. He served as Attorney General from 1981 to 1985 and then joined the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. In the conservative tide that swept over Washington in the early days of Mr. Reagan's term, the Justice Department reversed its position on major civil rights questions, re-interpreted antitrust law, called on the Supreme Court to reassess landmark rulings on abortion and sought to enforce a system of secrecy oaths and censorship for Government officials with access to intelligence data. Mr. Smith also was credited with playing a major role in Mr. Reagan's nomination of Sandra Day O'Connor, to be the first woman on the United States Supreme Court. Prior to O'Connor's appointment to the Court, she was an elected official and judge in Arizona serving as the first female Majority Leader in the United States as the Republican leader in the Arizona Senate. President Ronald Reagan, formally nominated O'Connor on August 19, 1981. On September 21, in 1981, O'Connor was confirmed by the U.S. Senate with a decision of 99–0. Liberal judicial analyst Steven Brill, gave Smith credit for gaining control of the Justice Department ''mega-bureaucracy'' and for cleaning up the corruption-plagued Drug Enforcement Administration. Smith established a judicial-selection system that appears to have produced conservative but qualified federal judges. He served as the member of the U.S. Advisory Commission on International, Educational and Cultural Affairs in Washington, D.C. from 1971 to 1978; a member of the board of directors of the Los Angeles World Affairs Council since 1970 and its president since 1975; a member of the Los Angeles Committee on Foreign Relations from 1954 to 1974; and a member of the Harvard University's School of Government since 1971. He also served as a member of the advisory board of the Center for Strategic and International Studies at Georgetown University, since 1978 and was a member of the Stanton Panel on International Information, Education and Cultural Relations in Washington from 1974 until 1975. His business affiliations included service as a director of the Pacific Lighting Corp. of Los Angeles from 1967 to 1981 and the Pacific Lighting Corp. of San Francisco from 1969 to 1981, a seat on the board of directors of Jorgensen Steel Company from 1974 to 1981, and a seat on the board of directors of Pullman, Inc. of Chicago from 1979 to 1980. He was the member of a California delegation to the Republican National Convention in 1968, 1972, and 1976, he was serving as the chairman of the delegation in 1968 and the vice chairman of the delegation in 1972 and 1976. He served as the Attorney General under President Reagan's cabinet from 1981 until 1985. During his tenure, The United States and Italy agreed on a common strategy to fight organized crime and narcotics trafficking, and the two governments announced this in a joint statement in Rome at the end of a three-day visit by U.S. Atty. Gen. William French Smith. Specifically, the two nations decided to strengthen cooperation to combat drug traffic in the Mediterranean basin and to stem the flow of drugs from South America. They also agreed on common measures to control chemicals used in the illicit production of narcotics. After leaving office, Smith rejoined the powerful law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Los Angeles. He also served on the boards of major corporations and was named chairman of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Foundation. Bill was instrumental in locating the present site for the Reagan Presidential Library. Bill Smith is remembered as a quiet, yet effective statesman. In the words of National Review, "Smith seldom spoke, but when he did, he was always worth hearing. No one had an ill word to say about him, so great was his decency - the quality he had most in common, perhaps, with the man he served so long."〔http://law.pepperdine.edu/events/william-french-smith-lectures/〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「William French Smith」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|