Emanuel Celler
Encyclopedia
Emanuel Celler was an American politician from New York who served in the United States House of Representatives
for almost 50 years, from March 1923 to January 1973. He was a member of the Democratic Party
.
; his paternal grandparents and maternal grandmother were Jewish. A graduate of Boys High School
and Columbia Law School
, he was the first Democrat to ever serve his district and was the fourth longest-serving congressman in history (only Jamie Whitten
, John Dingell
and Carl Vinson
served longer) and the longest-serving member of either house of Congress in New York's history. A practicing lawyer before entering politics, he was particularly involved in issues relating to the judiciary and immigration.
and Queens
-based district was numbered as New York's 10th congressional district
. Redistricting
in 1944 put him into the 15th district
from 1945 to 1953; from 1953 to 1963 his district was the 11th
and for his final decade in the United States Congress
, 1963–1973, it was back to its 1922 designation as the 10th. In the 1972 primary he was defeated by attorney Elizabeth Holtzman
in a stunning upset
. Had he succeeded in being re-elected to Congress in 1973, he would have served in the 16th as the district had once again been re-designated. He is the most senior member of Congress to have ever lost a primary.
Celler made his first important speech on the House floor during consideration of the Johnson Immigration Act of 1924
. Three years earlier, Congress had imposed a quota that limited immigration for persons of any nationality to 3 percent of that nationality present in the United States in 1910, with an annual admission limit of 356,000 immigrants. This national origin system was structured to preserve the ethnic and religious status quo of the United States by reducing immigration from Eastern
and Southern Europe
, thereby excluding many Jews, Catholics, Italians, and others. Celler was vehemently opposed to the Johnson act, which passed the isolationist Congress and was signed into law. Celler had found his cause and for the next four decades he vigorously spoke out in favor of eliminating the national origin quotas as a basis for immigration restriction.
In July 1939, a strongly worded letter from Celler to U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull
helped set in motion an extremely prolonged process of 45 years that finally led in 1984, three years after Celler's death, to full, formal diplomatic relations between the United States and the Holy See
.
In the 1940s, Celler opposed both the isolationists and the Franklin D. Roosevelt
administration by forcefully advocating that the United States relax immigration laws on an emergency basis to rescue those fleeing the Holocaust
. In 1943, he called President Franklin D. Roosevelt
's immigration policy "cold and cruel" and blasted the "glacier-like attitude" of the State Department.
In 1950, he was the lead House sponsor of legislation to strengthen the Clayton Antitrust Act
of 1914; the bill, written with Tennessee
Senator Estes Kefauver
, became the Celler-Kefauver Act
, which closed key regulatory loopholes, empowering the government to prevent vertical mergers
and conglomerate mergers which could limit competition.
In the early 1950s, Celler was the target of attacks by Sen. Joseph McCarthy. At the 1952 Democratic National Convention
, Celler gave a speech in which he responded to Sen. McCarthy, saying:
As Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee from 1949 to 1973 (except for a break from when the Republicans controlled the House), Celler was involved in drafting and passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964
, the Civil Rights Act of 1968
and the Voting Rights Act
. In January 1965, Celler proposed in the House of Representatives the Twenty-Fifth Amendment, which clarifies an ambiguous provision of the Constitution
regarding succession to the presidency
. Also in 1965, he proposed and steered to passage the Hart-Celler Act
, which eliminated national origins as a consideration for immigration. This was the culminating moment in Celler's 41-year fight to overcome restriction on immigration to the United States based on national origin.
In June 1972, Celler unexpectedly lost the Democratic primary to Elizabeth Holtzman, who eked out a victory over the House of Representatives' most senior member based chiefly on his opposition to feminism
and the Equal Rights Amendment
. Even though Celler was on the ballot as the candidate of the Liberal Party
, he decided not to campaign, allowing Holtzman to easily win the general election.
of 1973–74, he was a frequent guest on television and radio programs, discussing the hearings and the position of Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, which he held for a record number of years. If not for his electoral loss a few months before, Celler, not Peter Rodino of New Jersey, would have been conducting the hearings. Celler was on good terms with Richard Nixon
and in the early part of the hearings indicated that he would have taken a less adversarial position than Rodino.
In 1978, shortly after his 90th birthday, he had granted an interview in which he reflected on his life and the presidents he had known, from Warren G. Harding
to Gerald Ford
who, like Presidents Kennedy
, Johnson
and Nixon, had been Celler's House of Representatives colleague.
Emanuel Celler died in his native Brooklyn at the age of 92.
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
for almost 50 years, from March 1923 to January 1973. He was a member of the Democratic Party
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
.
Early life
Celler was born in Brooklyn, the son of Josephine (née Müller) and Henry H. Celler. All of his grandparents immigrated from GermanyGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
; his paternal grandparents and maternal grandmother were Jewish. A graduate of Boys High School
Boys High School
Boys High School is an historic and architecturally notable public school building in the Bedford–Stuyvesant, neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. It is regarded as "one of Brooklyn's finest buildings.-Architecture:...
and Columbia Law School
Columbia Law School
Columbia Law School, founded in 1858, is one of the oldest and most prestigious law schools in the United States. A member of the Ivy League, Columbia Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Columbia University in New York City. It offers the J.D., LL.M., and J.S.D. degrees in...
, he was the first Democrat to ever serve his district and was the fourth longest-serving congressman in history (only Jamie Whitten
Jamie L. Whitten
Jamie Lloyd Whitten was a United States Representative from Mississippi, who was of English and Swedish descent. He is the second-longest serving U.S. Representative ever and the fourth longest serving U.S. member of Congress ever.-Early life:Jamie Whitten was born in Cascilla, Mississippi...
, John Dingell
John Dingell
John David Dingell, Jr. is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1955 . He is a member of the Democratic Party...
and Carl Vinson
Carl Vinson
Carl Vinson was a United States Representative from Georgia. He was a Democrat and the first person to serve for more than 50 years in the United States House of Representatives...
served longer) and the longest-serving member of either house of Congress in New York's history. A practicing lawyer before entering politics, he was particularly involved in issues relating to the judiciary and immigration.
Service in the House of Representatives
During his first twenty-two years in Congress, 1923–1945, Celler's BrooklynBrooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
and Queens
Queens
Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....
-based district was numbered as New York's 10th congressional district
New York's 10th congressional district
New York's 10th Congressional District is a congressional district for the United States House of Representatives located in Brooklyn, New York City. It includes the neighborhoods of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Heights, Brownsville, Canarsie, East New York and Ocean Hill, as well as parts of Fort...
. Redistricting
Redistricting
Redistricting is the process of drawing United States electoral district boundaries, often in response to population changes determined by the results of the decennial census. In 36 states, the state legislature has primary responsibility for creating a redistricting plan, in many cases subject to...
in 1944 put him into the 15th district
New York's 15th congressional district
New York's 15th Congressional District is a congressional district for the United States House of Representatives located in New York City. It is composed of Upper Manhattan, Rikers Island and a largely non-residential section of northwestern Queens on the shore of the East River mostly occupied...
from 1945 to 1953; from 1953 to 1963 his district was the 11th
New York's 11th congressional district
New York's 11th Congressional District is a congressional district for the United States House of Representatives located in Brooklyn. It includes the neighborhoods of Brownsville, Crown Heights, East Flatbush, Flatbush, Kensington, Park Slope, Prospect Heights, and Prospect-Lefferts Gardens...
and for his final decade in the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
, 1963–1973, it was back to its 1922 designation as the 10th. In the 1972 primary he was defeated by attorney Elizabeth Holtzman
Elizabeth Holtzman
Elizabeth Holtzman is an American lawyer and former Democratic politician, pioneer woman officeholder, four term U.S. Representative , two term District Attorney of Kings County , and New York City Comptroller .Her role on the House Judiciary Committee during the Watergate scandal drew national...
in a stunning upset
Upset
An upset occurs in a competition, frequently in electoral politics or sports, when the party popularly expected to win , is defeated by an underdog whom the majority expects to lose, defying the conventional wisdom...
. Had he succeeded in being re-elected to Congress in 1973, he would have served in the 16th as the district had once again been re-designated. He is the most senior member of Congress to have ever lost a primary.
Celler made his first important speech on the House floor during consideration of the Johnson Immigration Act of 1924
Immigration Act of 1924
The Immigration Act of 1924, or Johnson–Reed Act, including the National Origins Act, and Asian Exclusion Act , was a United States federal law that limited the annual number of immigrants who could be admitted from any country to 2% of the number of people from that country who were already...
. Three years earlier, Congress had imposed a quota that limited immigration for persons of any nationality to 3 percent of that nationality present in the United States in 1910, with an annual admission limit of 356,000 immigrants. This national origin system was structured to preserve the ethnic and religious status quo of the United States by reducing immigration from Eastern
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
and Southern Europe
Southern Europe
The term Southern Europe, at its most general definition, is used to mean "all countries in the south of Europe". However, the concept, at different times, has had different meanings, providing additional political, linguistic and cultural context to the definition in addition to the typical...
, thereby excluding many Jews, Catholics, Italians, and others. Celler was vehemently opposed to the Johnson act, which passed the isolationist Congress and was signed into law. Celler had found his cause and for the next four decades he vigorously spoke out in favor of eliminating the national origin quotas as a basis for immigration restriction.
In July 1939, a strongly worded letter from Celler to U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull
Cordell Hull
Cordell Hull was an American politician from the U.S. state of Tennessee. He is best known as the longest-serving Secretary of State, holding the position for 11 years in the administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt during much of World War II...
helped set in motion an extremely prolonged process of 45 years that finally led in 1984, three years after Celler's death, to full, formal diplomatic relations between the United States and the Holy See
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
.
In the 1940s, Celler opposed both the isolationists and the Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
administration by forcefully advocating that the United States relax immigration laws on an emergency basis to rescue those fleeing the Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
. In 1943, he called President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
's immigration policy "cold and cruel" and blasted the "glacier-like attitude" of the State Department.
In 1950, he was the lead House sponsor of legislation to strengthen the Clayton Antitrust Act
Clayton Antitrust Act
The Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 , was enacted in the United States to add further substance to the U.S. antitrust law regime by seeking to prevent anticompetitive practices in their incipiency. That regime started with the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, the first Federal law outlawing practices...
of 1914; the bill, written with Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
Senator Estes Kefauver
Estes Kefauver
Carey Estes Kefauver July 26, 1903 – August 10, 1963) was an American politician from Tennessee. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in the U.S...
, became the Celler-Kefauver Act
Celler-Kefauver Act
The Celler-Kefauver Act is a United States federal law passed in 1950 that reformed and strengthened the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 which had amended the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. The Celler-Kefauver Act was passed to close a loophole regarding asset acquisitions and acquisitions involving...
, which closed key regulatory loopholes, empowering the government to prevent vertical mergers
Mergers and acquisitions
Mergers and acquisitions refers to the aspect of corporate strategy, corporate finance and management dealing with the buying, selling, dividing and combining of different companies and similar entities that can help an enterprise grow rapidly in its sector or location of origin, or a new field or...
and conglomerate mergers which could limit competition.
In the early 1950s, Celler was the target of attacks by Sen. Joseph McCarthy. At the 1952 Democratic National Convention
1952 Democratic National Convention
The 1952 Democratic National Convention was held at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago, Illinois from July 21 to July 26, 1952, which was the same arena the Republicans had gathered in a few weeks earlier for their national convention...
, Celler gave a speech in which he responded to Sen. McCarthy, saying:
"Deliberately and calculatedly, McCarthyismMcCarthyismMcCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s and characterized by...
has set before itself the task of undermining the faith of the people in their Government. It has undertaken to sow suspicion everywhere, to set friend against friend and brother against brother. It deals in coercion and in intimidation, tying the hands of citizens and officials with the fear of the smear attack."
As Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee from 1949 to 1973 (except for a break from when the Republicans controlled the House), Celler was involved in drafting and passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a landmark piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed major forms of discrimination against African Americans and women, including racial segregation...
, the Civil Rights Act of 1968
Civil Rights Act of 1968
On April 11, 1968 U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968, also known as the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968. Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 is commonly known as the Fair Housing Act, or as CRA '68, and was meant as a follow-up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964...
and the Voting Rights Act
Voting Rights Act
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of national legislation in the United States that outlawed discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for the widespread disenfranchisement of African Americans in the U.S....
. In January 1965, Celler proposed in the House of Representatives the Twenty-Fifth Amendment, which clarifies an ambiguous provision of the Constitution
United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.The first three...
regarding succession to the presidency
Presidency
The word presidency is often used to describe the administration or the executive, the collective administrative and governmental entity that exists around an office of president of a state or nation...
. Also in 1965, he proposed and steered to passage the Hart-Celler Act
Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965
Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 abolished the National Origins Formula that had been in place in the United States since the Immigration Act of 1924...
, which eliminated national origins as a consideration for immigration. This was the culminating moment in Celler's 41-year fight to overcome restriction on immigration to the United States based on national origin.
In June 1972, Celler unexpectedly lost the Democratic primary to Elizabeth Holtzman, who eked out a victory over the House of Representatives' most senior member based chiefly on his opposition to feminism
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
and the Equal Rights Amendment
Equal Rights Amendment
The Equal Rights Amendment was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution. The ERA was originally written by Alice Paul and, in 1923, it was introduced in the Congress for the first time...
. Even though Celler was on the ballot as the candidate of the Liberal Party
Liberal Party of New York
The Liberal Party of New York is a minor American political party that has been active only in the state of New York. Its platform supports a standard set of social liberal policies: it supports right to abortion, increased spending on education, and universal health care.As of 2007, the Liberal...
, he decided not to campaign, allowing Holtzman to easily win the general election.
Final years
In his final eight years, from January 1973 to January 1981, Celler remained busy, speaking about immigration and myriad other topics that occupied his half-century of public service. During the Watergate scandalWatergate scandal
The Watergate scandal was a political scandal during the 1970s in the United States resulting from the break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C., and the Nixon administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement...
of 1973–74, he was a frequent guest on television and radio programs, discussing the hearings and the position of Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, which he held for a record number of years. If not for his electoral loss a few months before, Celler, not Peter Rodino of New Jersey, would have been conducting the hearings. Celler was on good terms with Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
and in the early part of the hearings indicated that he would have taken a less adversarial position than Rodino.
In 1978, shortly after his 90th birthday, he had granted an interview in which he reflected on his life and the presidents he had known, from Warren G. Harding
Warren G. Harding
Warren Gamaliel Harding was the 29th President of the United States . A Republican from Ohio, Harding was an influential self-made newspaper publisher. He served in the Ohio Senate , as the 28th Lieutenant Governor of Ohio and as a U.S. Senator...
to Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974...
who, like Presidents Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
, Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
and Nixon, had been Celler's House of Representatives colleague.
Emanuel Celler died in his native Brooklyn at the age of 92.