III 

111TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. RES. 15 

Acknowledging the lifelong service of Griffin Boyette Bell, a legal icon, to 

the State of Georgia and to the United States. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JANUARY 16, 2009 

Mr. CHAMBLISS (for himself, Mr. ISAKSON, Mr. BROWN, Mr. KENNEDY, Mr. 

SESSIONS, Mr. ALEXANDER, and Mr. COCHRAN) submitted the following 

resolution; which was considered and agreed to 

RESOLUTION 

Acknowledging the lifelong service of Griffin Boyette Bell, 

a legal icon, to the State of Georgia and to the United 

States. 

Whereas Griffin Boyette Bell was born on October 31, 1918, 

in Americus, Georgia, to Thelma Leola Pilcher and Adlai 

Cleveland Bell, a cotton farmer; 

Whereas Griffin Boyette Bell died on January 5, 2009, at 

Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, after enduring 

long-term kidney disease and a battle with pancreatic 

cancer; 

Whereas Griffin Boyette Bell was raised in the Shiloh community outside of Americus until his family moved into 

Americus to establish a tire retail store; 


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Whereas Griffin Boyette Bell proved himself a superior student in the Americus public schools, and later, at Georgia 

Southwestern College, also in Americus; 

Whereas in 1942, Griffin Boyette Bell was drafted into the 

Army, where he served in the Quartermaster Corps and 

Transportation Corps; 

Whereas Griffin Boyette Bell, while stationed at Fort Lee, 

Virginia, met and married Mary Powell, who also had 

family ties to Americus, Georgia, and they later had one 

son, Griffin Jr.; 

Whereas in 1946, Griffin Boyette Bell, after being discharged 

from active duty in the Army with the rank of major, enrolled in Mercer University School of Law in Macon, 

Georgia; 

Whereas Griffin Boyette Bell worked at the law firm of Anderson, Anderson, and Walker while in law school; 

Whereas Griffin Boyette Bell, while still a law student, 

passed the Georgia bar examination and was appointed 

city attorney of Warner Robins, Georgia; 

Whereas Griffin Boyette Bell, after graduating with honors 

from Mercer University School of Law in 1948, practiced 

law in Savannah, Georgia and Rome, Georgia; 

Whereas in 1953, Griffin Boyette Bell accepted an offer to 

join the Atlanta law firm of Spalding, Sibley, Troutman 

and Kelley, later renamed King and Spalding; 

Whereas in 1958, Griffin Boyette Bell was appointed chief of 

staff to Governor Ernest Vandiver and, while serving in 

that capacity, was influential in organizing the Sibley 

Commission, which mapped Georgia’s approach to school 

desegregation; 


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Whereas Griffin Boyette Bell, while chief of staff to Governor 

Ernest Vandiver, helped moderate State policy concerning civil rights and was instrumental in keeping 

Georgia’s schools open during that turbulent period; 

Whereas in 1961, Griffin Boyette Bell was appointed by 

President John F. Kennedy to the United States Court 

of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, where he served for 14 

years and often played an instrumental role in mediating 

disputes during the peak of the United States civil rights 

movement; 

Whereas in 1976, President Jimmy Carter nominated Griffin 

Boyette Bell to be the 72nd Attorney General of the 

United States, and he was confirmed to that position on 

January 25, 1977; 

Whereas Griffin Boyette Bell brought independence and professionalism to the Department of Justice during his tenure as Attorney General by daily posting his third-party 

contacts, including meetings and calls with the White 

House, Members of Congress, or other individuals who 

were not in the Justice Department; 

Whereas Griffin Boyette Bell, in his capacity as Attorney 

General, advised the Carter administration and helped to 

increase the number of women and minorities serving on 

the Federal bench, including by recruiting Wade McCree, 

an African-American judge for the United States Court 

of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, to serve as Solicitor 

General of the United States and Drew S. Days III, an 

African-American lawyer for the NAACP Legal Defense 

Fund, to head the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice; 


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Whereas Griffin Boyette Bell led negotiations to divide his 

former appellate court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, then spanning from Georgia 

to Texas, into two courts: a new United States Court of 

Appeals for the Fifth Circuit based in New Orleans and 

the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit based in Atlanta; 

Whereas Griffin Boyette Bell, upon resignation as Attorney 

General in August 1979, was appointed by President 

Jimmy Carter as the Special Ambassador to the Helsinki 

Convention; 

Whereas Griffin Boyette Bell served as a member of the Secretary of State’s Advisory Committee on South Africa 

from 1985 to 1987; 

Whereas in 1989, Griffin Boyette Bell was appointed by 

President George H. W. Bush as the Vice Chairman of 

the President’s Commission on Federal Ethics Law Reform; 

Whereas Griffin Boyette Bell served as counsel to President 

George H. W. Bush during the Iran-Contra affair investigation; 

Whereas in September 2004, Griffin Boyette Bell was appointed Chief Judge of the United States Court of Military Commission Review; and 

Whereas, during Griffin Boyette Bell’s career as a lawyer, he 

specialized in corporate internal investigations, many of 

which were high profile, including investigations of E.F. 

Hutton following Federal indictments for that firm’s cash 

management practices, Exxon Valdez after an oil spill in 

Alaska, and Procter and Gamble after rumors circulated 


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that that company’s moon-and-stars logo was a satanic 

symbol: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the Senate— 

2 (1) acknowledges the lifelong service of Griffin 

3 Boyette Bell, a legal icon, to the State of Georgia 

4 and to the United States; and 

5 (2) commends Griffin Boyette Bell for his ten6 ure as Attorney General of the United States and 

7 his commitment to the United States civil rights 

8 movement. 

Æ 


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