"Get to know your chief Justice" department...
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HEARINGS before the COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY UNITED STATES SENATE
SECOND SESSION on the NOMINATION OF JUSTICE WILLIAM HUBBS REHNQUIST TO BE CHIEF
JUSTICE OF THE UNITED STATES
July 29, 30, 31, and August 1, 1986
Statement of James J. Brosnahan to the United States Senate Judiciary Committee
August 1, 1986
My name is James J. Brosnahan. I was born and raised in Massachusetts, graduating from
Boston College in 1956. After my wife and I graduated from the Harvard Law School in 1959,
we moved to Phoenix, Arizona. Between April 10, 1961, and February of 1963, I served as an
assistant United States attorney, prosecuting federal criminal cases in Phoenix. In 1963 I
left Arizona and moved to San Francisco, California, where I also served as an assistant
United States attorney prosecuting criminal cases. I am now in private practice in San
Francisco.
I am appearing today at the request of the Committee. I have never volunteered any
information about the events of 1962. My position is that those who are interested in those
events are entitled to accurate answers from me as to what I know and specifically the
members of this Committee are entitled to the testimony of any witness if they request it.
On Election Day in November 1962, in Phoenix, Arizona, several assistant U.S. attorneys were
assigned the task of receiving complaints alleging illegal interference with the voting
process. As complaints came in, an assistant U.S. attorney accompanied by an FBI agent
would be dispatched to the precinct involved. On that day the United States Attorney's Office
in Phoenix received numerous complaints from persons attempting to vote in precincts in
South Phoenix. At that time the population of south Phoenix was predominantly black and
Hispanic and voted overwhelmingly Democratic. The Office of United States Senator Hayden
also received complaints on that day. The complaints we received alleged in various forms
that the Republican challengers were aggressively challenging many voters without having a
basis for that challenge. One of the complaints frequently voiced on that day was that
Republican challengers would point out a black or Hispanic person in the voting line and
question whether he or she could read. (At this time it was my understanding that Arizona
law required that a voter be able to vote in English.) According to the complaints received at
the U.S. Attorney's Office, these challenges were confrontational and made without a factual
basis to believe the person challenged had any problem reading. The U.S. Attorney's Office
was advised that because the challenges were so numerous, the line of voters in several
precincts grew long and some black and Hispanic voters were discouraged from joining or
staying in the voters' line. It was also reported that at one of the precincts there was a fist
fight as a result of a confrontation between a Republican challenger and another person.
Based on interviews with voters, polling officials, and my fellow assistant U.S. attorneys, it
was my opinion in 1962 that the challenging effort was designed to reduce the number of
black and Hispanic voters by confrontation and intimidation.
I received a complaint on Election Day and went with an agent of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation to a polling place in south Phoenix. The polling place had a long line of voters,
several tables at which sat challengers from both parties, and an official whose job was to
preside over allowing people to vote. There may have been one or two other officials or
clerks. When we arrived, the situation was tense. At that precinct I saw William Rehnquist,
who was serving as the only Republican challenger. The FBI agent and I both showed our
identifications to those concerned, including Mr. Rehnquist. We both talked to persons
involved and the FBI agent interviewed anyone having information about what had occurred
at the polling place. In fairness to Justice Rehnquist, I cannot tell the Committee in detail
what specific complaints there were or how Mr. Rehnquist responded to them. The
complaints did involve Mr. Rehnquist's conduct. Our arrival and the showing of our
identifications had a quieting effect on the situation and after interviewing several
witnesses, we left. Criminal prosecution was declined as to all participants in the incidents
at various precincts that day. Prosecution was declined as a matter of prosecutorial
discretion. Our investigation was pursuant to the following criminal statutes:
18 U.S.C. § 594, which made it a misdemeanor to intimidate, threaten, coerce...or attempt to
intimidate, threaten, or coerce...any other person for the purpose of interfering with the
right of such other person to vote.
18 U.S.C. § 241, which made it a felony for two or more persons to conspire to injure,
oppress, threaten, or intimidate any citizen for exercising his civil rights.
I have read the testimony and letter supplied by Justice Designate William Rehnquist to this
Committee in 1971. On pages 71 and 72 of his testimony, he describes his role in the early
1960's as trying to arbitrate disputes at polling places. That is not what Mr. Rehnquist was
doing when I saw him on Election Day in 1962. At page 491 of the 1971 Record in his letter,
William Rehnquist stated: "In none of these years did I personally engage in challenging the
qualifications of any voters." This does not comport with my recollection of the events I
witnessed in 1962 when Mr. Rehnquist did serve as a challenger.
William Rehnquist was well-known to me in 1962. The Phoenix legal community was a lot
smaller than than it is now. Mr. Rehnquist had clerked on the United States Supreme Court,
which was a distinction that few Phoenix lawyers had at that time. There is no question that
the person to whom I spoke at the polling place was William Rehnquist.
In 1971 when Mr. Rehnquist was nominated to be a Justice of the Supreme Court, I recalled
the 1962 incident. No one contacted me about it. I did not know until recently that this
Committee had actually inquired into the voting problems of those years.
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