Lindsey Graham had a long history with the ABA
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, who died following complications from cardiovascular disease on Saturday, had close ties to the ABA.
Graham, a Republican from South Carolina who joined the Senate in 2003, typically met with his state’s delegation during ABA Day, which brings leaders from the ABA and state and local bar associations to Capitol Hill to advocate on issues of importance to the legal profession.
Jack Rives, the ABA’s former executive director, who knew Graham through their service in the Air Force Judge Advocate General’s Corps, often accompanied the senator on these visits.
“He was a very strong supporter of robust funding for the Legal Services Corp. and for access to legal services,” Rives says. “He would speak passionately about that. He also strongly supported the independence of the judiciary.”
In 2012, then ABA President Wm. T. (Bill) Robinson III recognized Graham with the ABA Congressional Justice Award during ABA Day.
That same year, Robinson was looking for “a dynamic keynote speaker” for the ABA’s annual meeting and asked Rives if he thought Graham would be interested. Rives remembers calling Graham, who said yes.
In his speech, Graham noted that politics was putting the independence of the federal judiciary at risk.
Col. Lindsey Graham (left) is shown at his Air Force retirement ceremony in 2015 with former ABA Executive Director Jack Rives. (Photo courtesy of Jack Rives)“I’m really worried about how we’re doing confirmations,” Graham said during the August 2012 meeting. “They’re turning into political events. I’m a conservative, and I’d like conservative judges on the federal bench.” But he also said that if President Barack Obama was re-elected, then “his nominees are entitled to be confirmed as long as they’re qualified.”
Graham also praised the ABA’s growing role in addressing the legal issues raised by threats to cybersecurity in the public and private sectors.
“The biggest threat we face is a cyberattack from someone who hates our guts,” he said in his speech.
Graham, who graduated from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1981, was passionate about legal education, Rives recalls. In 2015, the senator appeared as a guest on the ABA Law Student Podcast to discuss getting through law school, being an advocate and public service loan forgiveness.
Graham also was deeply committed to the international rule of law, Rives says. The day before his death, he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv. He had just turned 71.
Among Graham’s other interactions with the ABA, he visited the association’s office in Washington, D.C. at Rives’ invitation around 2012, Rives says. When Rives asked Graham if he wanted to become a member, Graham pulled out his checkbook and paid his dues right then and there.
Graham served in the U.S. Air Force from 1982 to 1988, and continued his military service through the South Carolina Air National Guard and Air Force Reserves. He eventually attained the rank of colonel.
When Graham retired in 2015, Rives, then ABA President William Hubbard and President-Elect Paulette Brown attended the ceremony, Rives says.
Rives, who had his own 33-year career in the U.S. Air Force and was the judge advocate general when he retired in 2010, wrote about serving alongside Graham for the Lawfire blog. In his post, Rives said Graham “was much more than a public figure.” He said Graham “was a valued colleague, a trusted friend, and a man I was honored to know.”
Following law school, Graham was a lawyer in private practice. He was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives in 1992. He later served in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing South Carolina’s 3rd congressional district from 1995 to 2003.
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