Archibald Cox
| Archibald Cox | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| 31st United States Solicitor General | |
|
In office January 1961 – July 1965 |
|
| President |
John F. Kennedy Lyndon B. Johnson |
| Preceded by | J. Lee Rankin |
| Succeeded by | Thurgood Marshall |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Archibald Cox, Jr. May 17, 1912 Plainfield, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Died |
May 29, 2004 (aged 92) Brooksville, Maine, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Phyllis Ames Cox (June 13, 1937-his death). |
| Children | Sarah, Archibald, Jr. and Phyllis |
| Alma mater |
Harvard College (B.A., 1934) Harvard Law School (J.D., 1937) |
Archibald Cox, Jr. (May 17, 1912 – May 29, 2004) was an American lawyer, legal scholar and professor, whose career alternated between academia and government. As a Harvard Law School faculty member, he became one of the early experts in federal labor law. In 1948 he published the first case book on labor law for use in law schools, a book that was periodically updated and supplemented until 2011. A prolific writer, he published dozens of articles on developments in labor relations. Even while teaching full-time, he became a noted labor arbitrator and wage stabilizer, in the latter role facing off against the United Mine Workers in an industrial dispute that touched on national security issues during the Korean War.
He became Senator John F. Kennedy's labor advisor in connection with the senator's single major legislative project, a bill that would become the Landrum–Griffin amendments, and as a result of that role became head of Kennedy's presidential campaign's brain trust, recruiting intellectuals and coordinating policy research and speech-writing for the campaign. In 1961 President Kennedy appointed him solicitor general, an office he held for four and a half years during which time he briefed and argued some of the most consequential decisions of the Warren Court. On return to Harvard he expanded on his experience in government to write on and teach constitutional law. As a high profile liberal, he was chosen to head a blue ribbon commission that investigated the student strikes that closed down Columbia University in the Spring of 1968. After that experience, he became Harvard's point man dealing with student disorders at Harvard for the next three years.
Cox became internationally famous when under mounting pressure and charges of corruption against persons closely associated with Richard Nixon, Attorney General nominee Elliot Richardson was forced to appoint him (on account of his reputation for integrity and his independence from the president) as Special Prosecutor to oversee the federal criminal investigation into the Watergate burglary and other related crimes, corrupt activities and wrongdoings that became popularly known as the Watergate scandal. His investigation led him directly to the president himself, and he had a dramatic confrontation with Nixon when he subpoenaed the tapes the president had secretly recorded of his Oval Office conversations. When Cox refused a direct order from the White House to seek no further tapes or presidential materials, Nixon fired him in an incident that became known as the Saturday Night Massacre. Cox's calm, reasonable and impeccably dignified explanations of his positions earned him overwhelming support among the professional bar and a great deal of popularity among the country at large. His firing produced a public relations disaster for Nixon and set in motion impeachment proceedings. In the end, the United States Supreme Court ruled unanimously against the president and in favor of the position taken by Cox in an opinion written by Nixon appointee Chief Justice Warren Burger. Rather than face impeachment and trial with the tapes as evidence, Richard Nixon became the only United States president to resign.
...
Wikipedia