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Archibald Cox, Jr.
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| In office January 1961 – July 1965 |
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| President | John F. Kennedy Lyndon B. Johnson |
| Preceded by | J. Lee Rankin |
| Succeeded by | Thurgood Marshall |
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| Born | May 17, 1912 Plainfield, New Jersey |
| Died | May 29, 2004 (aged 92) Brooksville, Maine |
| Political party | Democratic |
Archibald Cox, Jr., (May 17, 19121 – May 29, 2004) was an American lawyer who served as U.S. Solicitor General under President John F. Kennedy, and later became best known as the first special prosecutor for the Watergate scandal.
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Early life and law career
Cox was the son of Archibald and Frances Perkins Cox. A native of Plainfield, New Jersey, he attended the Wardlaw-Hartridge School, then called Wardlaw Country Day, and St. Paul's School. Cox graduated from Harvard College in 1934 and Harvard Law School in 1937 where he was a member of Phi delta phi legal fraternity, and joined the Boston law firm of Ropes, Gray, Best, Coolidge and Rugg, now known as Ropes & Gray. During World War II, he was appointed to the National Defense Board, and then to the Office of the Solicitor General.
After the war ended, Cox joined the faculty at Harvard, where he taught courses in torts and in administrative, constitutional, and labor law. During that time, he also became an adviser and speech-writer for John F. Kennedy, who was at that time U.S. senator from Massachusetts. In 1961, Cox joined the new Kennedy administration as solicitor general. At a time when civil rights protesters were routinely chased with dogs and clubbed, he became JFK's point man on pursuing legal remedies to injustice, often appearing before the Supreme Court. Among the cases he was involved in were Baker v. Carr, which set the standards for reapportionment; Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States, which broke grounds on public accommodations for African-Americans under the Civil Rights Act of 1964; and South Carolina v. Katzenbach, which upheld the Voting Rights Act; In 1965, he returned to the law school.
Watergate special prosecutor
On May 19, 1973, Cox took another leave to accept appointment as the first Watergate special prosecutor. Less than two months following his appointment, Cox learned with the rest of America of Nixon's secret tapes. Over the next few months, Cox, the Senate Watergate committee, and Judge John Sirica battled with the White House over those tapes. During the fight, after Sirica ordered Nixon to comply with the committee and Cox's demand, the President offered Cox a compromise -- instead of producing the tapes, he would allow the elderly Senator John Stennis to listen to the tapes, with the help of a transcript prepared for him by the White House, and Stennis would then summarize the content of the tapes. Cox rejected this compromise on Friday, October 19, 1973. On October 20, 1973, in an event termed the Saturday Night Massacre, U.S. President Richard Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire Cox. Rather than comply with this order, Attorney General Richardson resigned, leaving his second-in-command, Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus in charge of the Justice Department. Ruckelshaus likewise refused to fire Cox, and he, too, resigned. The highest-ranking officer in the Justice Department was now Solicitor General Robert Bork; Bork fired Cox, as requested. Upon being fired, Cox stated, "whether ours shall be a government of laws and not of men is now for Congress and ultimately the American people."
The firing of Cox illustrated the need for independent counsels — prosecutors specifically appointed to investigate official misconduct. After Nixon's resignation, Cox became chairman of Common Cause, and became the founding chair of the Health Effects Institute. Cox argued Buckley v. Valeo, which reformed campaign financing, before the Supreme Court in 1976. He was made an honorary member of the Order of the Coif in 1991. Besides the Paul Douglas Ethics in Government Award, Professor Cox was also the recipient of the Thomas "Tip" O'Neill Citizenship Award.
Death and legacy
Cox died at his home in Brooksville, Maine of natural causes, on the same day as Sam Dash, chief counsel to the Senate Select Committee to Investigate Campaign Practices during the Watergate scandal.
The New York Times wrote, "a gaunt 6-footer who wore three-piece suits, Mr. Cox was often described as 'ramrod straight,' not only because of his bearing but also because of his personality."
Cox was the great-grandson of William M. Evarts, who defended President Andrew Johnson during his impeachment hearing and became Secretary of State in the Hayes administration. He was also a direct descendant of Roger Sherman, a Connecticut signer of the Declaration of Independence; Archibald Cox, Jr. 6, Frances Bruen Perkins 5, Elizabeth Hoar Evarts 4, William Maxwell Evarts 3, Mehitabel Sherman 2, Roger Sherman 1.
Bibliography
A partial list of Cox's books:
- Freedom of Expression (2001) ISBN: 0735102368
- Law and the National Labor Policy (1983) ISBN: 0313237948
- The Role of the Supreme Court in American Government (1977) ISBN: 0198274114
- The Court and the Constitution (1988) ISBN: 039548071X
Notes
- ^ Some sources say he was born 12 May 1912.
Further reading
- "Cox and Nixon" Time. October 29, 1973.
- Doyle, James (1977). Not Above the Law: the battles of Watergate prosecutors Cox and Jaworski. New York: William Morrow and Company. ISBN 0-688-03192-7.
- Gormley, Ken. Archibald Cox: The Conscience of a Nation New York: Perseus Books, 1999. ISBN 0738201472
External links
- Archibald Cox Oral History, audio and transcripts from 2000 interview, Columbia University Libraries Oral History Research Office
- Biography from a Department of Justice website
- Bloomberg News story on Cox and Samuel Dash
- Find-A-Grave profile for Archibald Cox
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| Preceded by J. Lee Rankin |
Solicitor General 1961–1965 |
Succeeded by Thurgood Marshall |
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