Motion to Discharge--S.J. Res. 77

Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, there is something about this Doug Jones. From the earliest stages in his life, he knew he was going to be a little bit different.

When I grew up in East St. Louis, IL, it was expected that my childhood hero would be St. Louis Cardinals great Stan ``the Man'' Musial. But when you grew up in Fairfield, AL--also a baseball fan as a boy--it turned out that your childhood heroes included Joe DiMaggio, Roger Maris, and Mickey Mantle. I am not sure how that goes over in the Deep South, to say that you are rooting for a team called the Yankees. But you did it, and you knew from the start, in your youth, that you were willing to strike out and do the radical, controversial thing.

You were 9 years old in September 1963 when four members of the Ku Klux Klan bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church in nearby Birmingham, killing four innocent, young girls who were not much older than you were. Fourteen years later, you were an idealistic, young law student who skipped class to sit in on the trial of the ringleader of that church bombing. You were mesmerized when listening to Alabama's then- attorney general--the lead prosecutor in the case--tell the jury: ``It is never too late for justice.'' The jury agreed and convicted the bomber.

You would go on to marry Louise, and God blessed you with three beautiful children--two sons and a daughter. Yet the memories of those four little girls who were killed in their church never left you.

In his eulogy for the four fallen girls, Dr. Martin Luther King said that the girls ``say to each of us, Black and White alike, that we must substitute courage for caution. They say to us that we must be concerned not merely about who murdered them but about the system, the way of life, and the philosophy which produced the murderers. Their deaths say to us that we must work passionately and unrelentingly for the realization of the American dream.'

I am sure a lot of people heard those words and nodded, but you heard those words, and you were inspired. In 2001, as the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, you led the successful effort to try and convict the remaining two coconspirators in the church bombing. Both men were sentenced to life in prison.

In that same office, you coordinated a joint State-Federal task force that led to the indictment of domestic terrorist Eric Rudolph. You advocated that Rudolph should stand trial first in Birmingham for the deadly bombing in that city of a women's health center before being tried in Atlanta for the Centennial Olympic Park bombing. All told, these and other bombings killed 2 people and injured more than 150. Rudolph pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four life terms in prison because of your commitment.

I was honored, during the course of the campaign, Doug, to do a joint fundraiser with you and Louise and Loretta, my wife. I got to sit out on my deck in Springfield and listen to Jason Isbell and Joe Walsh. It was a lot of fun that night. Sometimes campaigns are fun. It certainly was to be with you and Louise on that particular night.

I want to close by saying that you shocked me on the floor of the Senate with your first speech. I couldn't believe that this new Senator from the State of Alabama would give a speech about guns and gun violence. It really told me all I needed to know about you right then and there. You are willing to stick out your neck for something you believe in, even if it is going to be controversial and even if you are going to catch hell for it, because you believe in it sincerely.

I know you are a proud hunter and gun owner, and there is no question in my mind about your views on that issue. Yet, after the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, FL, that took the lives of 49 young men and women--one of the worst mass shootings in the Nation's history--you supported tighter background checks for gun sales and raising the age requirement to purchase a semiautomatic weapon.

I want to personally thank you, as well, for showing exceptional political courage in cosponsoring my DACA legislation in the Dream Act. I will never forget it.

I am also proud that you were an original cosponsor of Justice in Policing. That wasn't an easy one either for anybody and for you especially, but you stood up for what you believed in. That is legislation that I joined in introducing with our friend Cory Booker and soon-to-be Vice President Kamala Harris.

So you have left your mark. It may seem like a short time in the Senate, but there are those who have served for much longer who have a lot less to show for it. You told us who you were on your first day, and you proved it every day thereafter. It has been an honor to count you as a colleague. I know that you are going to continue to find ways to bend that moral arc of the universe toward justice, and I look forward to supporting you in every way that I can in that goal. I wish you the best.

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