As hank myers said, i am privileged to be the president and ceo of the National Constitution center in is the only which institution in america chartered by congress to disseminate information about the u. S. Constitution on a nonpartisan basis. What an inspiring charter that is. I am thrilled to be here at the for our ford symposium symposium on gerald ford. This is what we hope will be a series of collaborations with libraries across the country where we will join in theirrship to explore constitutional legacy. In partisan politics every person who serves as president makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the constitution, and the limits in places on governmental powers. I could not imagine a better than the one that we are going to talk about today. This panel is devoted to president ford domestic posit policy. Theael gearhart is distinguished professor of law of northiversity carolina chapel hill. He is author of a new book, the forgotten president. One of the 10 best books of the year. My came to the National Constitution center last week. Riveting discussion on how these president s often forgotten made a significant contribution to our constitutional understanding. And martin wolf. I am glad he is here to take the time to join us. He was appointed to the District Court of massachusetts in 1985 to service chief judge from 20062012. He served in the for just ford Justice Department. He received a certificate of appreciation from the president from his work in the resettlement of indochinese recognition. You have written this great book about the forgotten president s. One thing that emerges is that you can be forgotten and still make a significant contribution consultation constitutional understanding. You believe that president ford is neither a forgotten president nor a bad one. You think you made a significant contribution to our understanding of executive power. That is correct. I am honored to be here. I appreciate the chance to be a part of this program and to talk iout the president s legacy know a great deal of. I think president ford had a tremendous constitutional legacy and is particularly striking when you consider he was president for 900 days. ,ver those 900 days what he did it did have an impact. I will mention the ways in which it did. We have people here today. The fact you have this library, this museum, those help keep his memory alive. We keep talking about the things he did read first is the fact that he became president , he is the first and only president who has come by way of the office for the 25th amendment. He was not elected. That in itself is remarkable. Even without that electoral mandate he was able to do a lot of things, many of which we will talk about today. They include the following. He took over at a time when the Justice Department will reeling from charges of corruption. He restored integrity to the department of justice. One of the most important was leavy. Ieve the edward i think there is a symmetry ford and coolidge. Another president not long remembered. Coolidge took over the white house when there was a deal of corruption. He removed the attorney general, and they each tried to accomplish restoring integrity. Also treating the department of justice as an arms length from the white house was unusual and distinc distinctive. We will talk about the pardon later. Famousrobably the most pardon in history. You all know when he made it, his popularity dropped dramatically. We talk about it as if it were really important step towards healing the country. That in itself is an indication of how memorable it was. Thank you for that framing of our topic. You were an assistant to attorney general edward leavy. Leavys as about fords crowning achievement. Talk about his contribution. I would like to say how gratifying it is to be invited in be able to come. I am a United States district judge in my 30th year. Workingust come from with journalists and lawyers in russia. I was talking to them about the roles of lawyers in the media play in the United States. The meaningful part of my remarks focus on watergate, my experience working with president fords administration. This is inspiring example of our country at its best to embattled people throughout the world. Had whentunity that i i was 30 years old had a transforming effect on my interests, aspirations, standards. It is very gratifying to be able to express my gratitude to president ford and attorney general leavy for that. Each of them i think has a vibrant living legacy. When attorney general leavy passed away in 2000, president ford came to the university of chicago and spoke at the memorial service. Hesaid in part that when recruited edward leavy from the president of the university of chicago, because he wanted someone with impeccable integrity and intellect at a time of corrosive cynicism throughout the country. Coverup, the severely damaged confidence in the Justice Department, as well as a presidency, all kinds of abuses by the fbi and cia, and the vietnam war has caused considerable controversy. The department of justice had been used for partisan purposes. , president nixons Campaign Manager in 1972 went to prison for abusing his office as attorney general. Said to therd gathering at the university of chicago when he recruited edward told him i want you to protect the rights of american citizens and not the president who appointed you. All i knew is that he shared my reference to the constitution. We were talking last night, wouldnt any president say that . It shows the remarkable success of president ford and edward leavy. That certainly in that. Not typical of the attorney general. They view the department of justice to protect his brothers personal reputation and partisan interest. Thats what John Mitchell had done as well. Edward leavy was quite the opposite. President president ford delegated him substantial autonomy, but not complete independence, nor did the attorney general want independence. At that time, there were many toposed bills in washington make the attorney general independent of the president. For example, the way the dei director is now. They have a 10year term that would survive the president who , to take away from the Justice Department the authority to investigate highlevel officials, special prosecutors. Was theeavys view attorney general is accountable to the president for policies, whether the priorities of the department of justice what are the priorities of the department of justice going to be, for example. Example, where the law was uncertain, guidance from the president that was appropriate. Interestingly, edward leavy and president ford had been graduate students at Yale Law School at the same time. The president , in a selfdeprecating way, explained he spent most of his time coaching the yale football team, and the attorney general and his reputation for tremendous intellect. Didrney general leavy strongly believe that the department of justice should never be an instrument for policies for partisan purposes. The law had to be administered impartially, and president ford wanted him to do that. Two short years, the cynicism about the department of justice and the executive branch generally was essentially eliminated through the honest, Impartial Administration of ,ustice, led by edward leavy but in very close collaboration with president ford. Great. Describe this incredible achievement two years, the most polarized time in history. President ford comes in. Theres concern about executive power and nixons abuses of wiretapping and also its of instruments of president ial power, and president ford transforms that all sorts of instruments of president ial power. Tell us what the result was of this transformation of executive how are. Sure. As judge wolf well knows, because he worked with most of these folks in the department adjust us, he pulled together a remarkable team of people, each of whom was exemplary and took that charge from the president quite seriously, which was to and not belaw partisan. That was particularly difficult at the time because you need to remember, there is tremendous spotlight placed on the department of justice at that time because up until then, there had not been a spotlight placed on the department of justice. Everything that was happening was happening under a microscope. Among the people were carly hill, richard thornburgh, rex verysomeone i got to know well fabulous lawyer. An incredible Public Servant as well. All of these appointments, both individually and together, i think restored faith in the department of justice. The fact that attorney general leavy was willing to sort of, again, follow the law were ever it took him, but at the same time trying to protect executive power in a nonpartisan way. If we think about it, we might say that sounds really difficult hardse in these days, its to think of attorneys general or president s we all would have faith of actually doing that. Things have become so heavily partisan that a think the idea this could happen at all seems rather extraordinary, but it did. I just want to emphasize a couple of other things about it this was all being done by a president who was not elected. The challenge president ford had todoing all this was he had be able to maintain his Political Support and political viability in the course of doing all this. He did not have elect oral mandate to do that, so somehow he had to maintain legitimacy for what he did, even though he was not technically elected. That in itself was a delicate act. It included doing things that were extraordinary. He came and again, testified before congress. Imagine how unusual that was, that a president of the United States would appear before congress to talk about his actions. It is both appointments, how he modeled himself as someone who was there to be transparent and somebody there to be responsible, accountable for what he was doing those things make him quite remarkable. Back one of the great Public Servants of the 20th century, who later became secretary of commerce. His nickname was mr. Clean, i think, but if you do not know anything about elliott richardson, you should read up on him. He brought the administration a lot of people who had reputations and records that really were quite distinctive. This gave it a character and cast that i think helped restore peoples faith in government. s tell us more about leavy specific reforms. He proposed guidelines for the fbi and talked about surveillance reforms. He had quite a record. Tell us about it. Attorney general leavy this was a time when executive power, the power of the president , was under great attack. General, edward leavy, believed that substantial but inve power exists, contrast, as michael said, to the current climate where each branch perhaps even including the court seems to be asserting its maximum authority in either let the courts decide what the limits are, let political process decide what the limits are, president ford shared with edward leavy the idea of government by discussion. He did not believe that the executive branch should secretly, particularly, press its powers to the limits because this had led to abuses and secret abuses covered up under the rubric of National Security. The first generation, for , of the current nsa controversy had occurred. The nsa had been intercepting the fbi and cia doing surveillance of americans. In a case coming out of the District Court in michigan, the decidedcourt in 1971 you cannot do that with regard to american citizens. It left open whether there was Inherent Authority in the president to do eavesdropping with regard to foreign powers and their agents for National Security purposes. Edward leavy believed that authority existed, and he set up with president ford a process where he would personally have surveillanceeach for National Security purposes, but there was a question asked to whether that was legal. In this corrosive, cynical, postwatergate era, there were risks he was taking. Even though he believed the president had the inherent withouty to do things approval from congress, edward leavy felt, and the president agreed with him on this, that things would be more clear, coherent, accountable, and legitimate to the American People if he went to congress, they talked about what the architecture of this National Security surveillance should be, to give a role, but a defined and limited role, to the courts. Essentially, edward leavy began the discussion that led to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court two years after president ford left office in a statute enacted during the carter administration. It works very well, at least until 9 11. This was a manifestation of the view that although we have a ,eparation of powers powers these are three powers that form one government. In a constant colloquy with each duty theshare a president , the congress, and the leavys viewward shared a duty to faithfully execute the constitution to the best of their ability and to try to reach a consensus and a accommodation. As i said, for about a generation, it led to what reasonably was regarded as a satisfactory resolution of the National Security wiretapping issue. Edward leavy wanted a role for the congress and the court, but he also wanted it limited. I dont want this to sound too tohnical, but essentially, get a National Security wiretap, you need a warrant. It is not a typical wanted based on probable cause that you will get evidence of a crime, but it is not a typical warrant based on probable cause that you will get evidence of a crime, on it was a warrant based the assumption that this was a foreign power or agent of a and important National Security information would be obtained if this intrusion on privacy was permitted. Thee were efforts to get courts and congress involved in deciding whether this was really a foreign power or Foreign Agent , and edward leavy strongly and successfully argued that the other branches of government did not have the responsibility to make that decision, nor would they have the information necessary to make the decision. While he was advocating the voluntary diminution of executive power, he was not allowing it to be hijacked. This is just fascinating. Tremendousscribed a vision of balance where all three branches are supposed to cooperate. How did that happen . Did the fact that president ford came from congress influences effort to involve congress in checking the executive . I think the answer is yes. Sometimes people refer to as adent fords presidency congressional presidency, and i think that is partly because he was the only person that could get confirmed to be able to occupy the position of Vice President , and the reason hes the only person they thought they could get confirmed is because he was basically so popular in congress. He came into the position of Vice President and later became president with people in congress at least respecting him as an individual not always agreeing with him, but thinking he was a very decent man, a very thoughtful person. He is basically being a good steward. I say that knowing that we should not overstate the good relations he had with congress. He actually had a remarkable number of his vetoes overridden by congress. More vetoes overridden by congress in his short presidency than were even overridden by nixon in the last couple years of his administration. That goodwill did not always extend to doing everything he wanted, but i think his willingness to share, to be open , was something everybody appreciated, even more in retrospect and perhaps they did at the time. Another thing we cannot overestimate is the extent to which as an individual people really like him. That can go a long way. Contrast that with richard nixon, whom i would go so far as to say not many people like him as an individual, even though he was elected president twice i think with president ford, one reason why we are here today is because he really exuded and ofodied a tremendous sense decency, which i think everybody in government understood and appreciated. That helped the relationship with the other branches. The conception of executive power he had, which he shared with attorney general leavy, was a remarkable one because its not one that would be shared by subsequent president s and attorneys general. That in itself tells you something. Maybe it was driven to some extent by expediency, but i think it was driven to some extent by principal. The president was willing to do something on a principlebasis, which people see even to this act and principled achievement. That is a remarkable part of a legacy, and not many president s can look back and have the department of justice at least at the top and the relationship with the president always thought of as being perfectly principled, perfectly balanced. We have two visions of the attorney general what is the traditional one, which has included people like robbie kennedy, as you both describe, a friend of the president , and the other is this nonpartisan model that seems to include edward general stonerney under president coolidge. Why is it we have not seen a nonpartisan attorney general since this administration . I thought about that question a lot. Office with edward leavy, i wrote him a letter. Het,a judge now, not a prop and i am frequently wrong, but this one i think i was right on. I wrote him that the extent to which his successors fall short of his model, his example, will his success in restoring faith in this administration of justice. Riska president takes a when he has an honest, independent, impartial attorney general because if he is going to do anything wrong, or if there will be reasonable questions raised regarding his behavior, this person could be his adversary, not his hour i not his ally, while they have to cooperate on other things. The dean of Columbia Law School was appointed after the infa