Politics / Law
Robert P. Griffin
1923–2015 · lawyer, U.S. senator, state Supreme Court justice
Detroit-born, Dearborn-raised Republican who co-wrote the Landrum-Griffin labor law, told Nixon to comply with Watergate subpoenas and lost his Senate seat to Carl Levin in 1978.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Died
Traverse City, Michigan
aged 91- Birth name
- Robert Paul Griffin
- Also known as
- Bob Griffin
- Detroit years
- 1923–1940s
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Robert Griffin was born in Detroit in 1923 and grew up in the western suburbs, attending public schools in Garden City and Dearborn. He served in Europe with the 71st Infantry Division in World War II, graduated from Central Michigan and the University of Michigan law school and practiced law in Traverse City. Elected to the U.S. House in 1956, he co-sponsored the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959, the Landrum-Griffin Act, which regulated union elections and finances after the Senate's racketeering hearings, a law resented by Detroit's labor movement. He helped Gerald Ford become House Republican leader. Appointed to the Senate in 1966, he led the 1968 filibuster that blocked Abe Fortas as chief justice and, as a Senate Republican leader in 1974, warned President Nixon that defying Watergate subpoenas was impeachable. In 1978 he lost narrowly to Detroit council president Carl Levin. He later served on the Michigan Supreme Court from 1987 to 1995.
Highlights
- U.S. senator from Michigan, 1966–1979
- Co-author of the Landrum-Griffin Act (1959)
- Led the 1968 filibuster against Abe Fortas's elevation
- Urged Nixon in 1974 to comply with Watergate subpoenas
- Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court, 1987–1995