Mukasey, Hon. Michael B.

English

St. John's University School of Law

St. John's Law Review Volume 83 Number 2 Volume 83, Spring 2009, Number 2 Article 1 January 2012 The Honorable John E. Sprizzo Award Acceptance Speech Hon. Michael B. Mukasey Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.stjohns.edu/lawreview Recommended Citation Mukasey, Hon. Michael B. (2009) "The Honorable John E. Sprizzo Award Acceptance Speech," St. John's Law Review: Vol. 83 : No. 2 , Article 1. Available at: https://scholarship.law.stjohns.edu/lawreview/vol83/iss2/1 This Speech is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at St. John's Law Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in St. John's Law Review by an authorized editor of St. John's Law Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact selbyc@stjohns.edu. THE HONORABLE JOHN E. SPRIZZOAWARD ACCEPTANCE SPEECHHON. MICHAEL B. MUKASEY'I am privileged in at least three ways to be here this evening.First, it is a privilege to receive an award from the AlumniAssociation of St. John's Law School, an institution that hascontributed so much to the welfare and the governance of thiscity, this state, and this nation. Second, it is a privilege to beincluded in the list of those who have received this award in thepast. Most personally of all, it is a privilege for me to receive anaward named after my late colleague and friend John Sprizzo.Fittingly, he was the award's first recipient because he set thestandard it represents. Sadly, this is the first time it has beenpresented when he is no longer among us.1I know that my remarks are what stand between you andfurther refreshment and conversation, two of the many pleasureshe enjoyed, so I will discuss only two related subjects briefly:One is Judge Sprizzo himself; the second is how much we haveneed in these times to keep in mind his directness and his clarityof thought.I first got to see Judge Sprizzo in action when he appeared,then as Mr. Sprizzo, in a case styled United States v. John N.Mitchell and Maurice H. Stans.2 He stood up to argue a motionI Partner, Debevoise & Plimpton, LLP; former Judge of the United StatesDistrict Court for the Southern District of New York (1987-2006); former AttorneyGeneral of the United States (2007-09). Mr. Mukasey delivered these remarks,which have been edited for publication, on April 28, 2009, at the Loeb Boathouse inCentral Park, when he accepted the Judge John E. Sprizzo Award from theManhattan Chapter of the St. John's University School of Law Alumni Association.1 John Emilio Sprizzo, who was born in Brooklyn in 1934 and received his B.A.from St. John's University in 1956 and his LL.B. from St. John's University School ofLaw in 1959, served as a Judge of the United States District Court for the SouthernDistrict of New York from 1981 until his death on December 16, 2008.2 372 F.Supp 1239 (S.D.N.Y. 1973). Beginning in September 1973, formerAttorney General of the United States John N. Mitchell and former CommerceSecretary of the United States Maurice H. Stans, who had, respectively, directed andserved as chief fundraiser for Richard Nixon's 1968 and 1972 presidentialcampaigns, were tried in the Southern District of New York on Watergate-relatedST. JOHN'S LAW REVIEWbefore the trial judge in that case, the late Lee P. Gagliardi. Afew moments into then-Mister Sprizzo's machine-gun styledelivery, Judge Gagliardi frowned and looked down at the courtreporter, a man named Eddie Baron, who had won severalnational speed competitions among court reporters. JudgeGagliardi asked him, "Are you getting this?" Without hesitating,Mr. Baron answered, "Every other word, Your Honor."When I joined the court in 1988, Judge Sprizzo's chamberswere just across the hall on the sixth floor of "The Courthouse,"as he regarded it. I made several pilgrimages to his chambers foradvice, having to keep in mind all the while that you always hadto be careful about trying to follow advice to do things that onlyJudge Sprizzo could do.He has often been described as larger than life, and I canunderstand the temptation of the phrase since he was large inboth size and presence. But I always thought that he was morelife than larger than life, in the sense that he illustrated andsavored personally just about all the possibilities that life had tooffer, including good music, good food and drink, goodconversation, and a piercing intellect that allowed him to offersometimes stunning insights into what was going on around himlong before those insights occurred to others.I recall, for example, walking with him on Pearl Street in themid-1990s, during one or another of the terrorism trials thatwere going on at the time. We encountered the heavily armedmarshals and other law enforcement officers who surrounded theUnited States Courthouse. He looked at the scene for a minute,and said: "I don't understand this. What are we doing with thesecases? This isn't a job for the courts, this is a job for themilitary." That was several years before September 11, 2001.That piercing intellect sometimes could be a disadvantage tolawyers appearing before him because he could think of thecounterargument to every argument they presented to him-sometimes, even arguments that, on balance, perhaps shouldhave prevailed. I was advised the first time I appeared beforehim to say as little as possible and to try to avoid being the lastcharges of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and perjury. See Arnold H. Lubasch,Mitchell and Stans Face Historic Trial on Tuesday, N.Y. TIMES, Sept. 9, 1973, at 44.John Sprizzo served as one of Mitchell's defense attorneys. In April 1974, the juryreturned not guilty verdicts on all counts. See Martin Arnold, Mitchell and Stans AreAcquitted on All Counts After 48-Day Trial, N.Y. TIMES, Apr. 29, 1974, at 1, 38.[Vol. 83:517HON JOHN E. SPRIZZO AWARD SPEECHlawyer to speak because, since he could always come up with acounterargument, the lawyer who made the last argument might,for that reason alone, be more likely to lose.His written decisions were spare, brief, and to the point, buthis skill as a judge was most apparent in the courtroom and inhis ability to respond to anything that came up in that settingand, sometimes, even outside it. I recall being in his chamberswhen he learned that one well-heeled defendant, who owned astring of race horses, was trying to get the Judge to recusehimself on the ground that the defendant had named one of themafter the Judge---"Sprizzo's Honor." The Judge said he was goingto deny the application and then added one additional thought:he shook his head and said, "I just hope it's not a gelding."3It was, I think, a French philosopher-although JudgeSprizzo, as proud of his heritage as he was, probably would havebeen able to find an Italian source that that philosopher reliedon-who said that the first rule of morality is to think clearly.Certainly Judge Sprizzo observed that rule when he pointed out,long before September 11, 2001, that terrorism presented,principally, a job that was well beyond the capacity and functionof courts.What the military is doing now is not permitted to bereferred to by anyone in government as a war but only as anoverseas contingency operation. Unlawful combatants in ourcustody are not permitted to be referred to any longer asunlawful combatants. Terrorism is to be referred to as a man-caused disaster. All of this has the effect of hiding reality, notonly from the public at large, but also from those who aresupposed to be making policy in the first place. In doing so, itmakes it that much harder to know who and what it is we arefacing and to summon up the political will and the moralauthority to prevail.We all miss John Sprizzo for a variety of reasons, but onesubstantial reason for me is that he would inject both clarity ofthought and clarity of expression into the discussion, were heonly here to join in it.' In the end, Judge Sprizzo did transfer this case, SEC v. First Jersey Sec., Inc.,No. 85 Civ. 8585 (RO), 1995 WL 366334 (S.D.N.Y. June 20, 1995), to another Judge.See Diana B. Henriques, New Jersey Financier Used Fraud at Firm, Judge Rules,N.Y. TIMEs, June 21, 1995, at D4.20091520 ST. JOHN'S LAW REVIEW [Vol. 83:517Again, I am honored to accept this award named for him andto be able to use this occasion to recall some of what made himremarkable. That recollection makes me realize that I willalways be grateful to have this award as a constant reminder ofthe man and the standards he set and followed.

The Honorable John E. Sprizzo Award Acceptance Speech

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The Honorable John E. Sprizzo Award Acceptance Speech

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