[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2643 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 2643

To posthumously award a Congressional Gold Medal to Judge Damon Jerome 
                                 Keith.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            October 17, 2019

  Mr. Peters introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
    referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To posthumously award a Congressional Gold Medal to Judge Damon Jerome 
                                 Keith.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Judge Damon Keith Congressional Gold 
Medal Act of 2019''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Judge Damon Keith was born on July 4, 1922, in Detroit, 
        Michigan, and died at his home in Detroit, Michigan, surrounded 
        by family and loved ones, on April 28, 2019.
            (2) Judge Damon Keith received a bachelor of arts from West 
        Virginia State University, a juris doctor from Howard 
        University School of Law, and a master of laws from Wayne State 
        University Law School.
            (3) Judge Damon Keith served in the United States Army from 
        1943 to 1946 when he was discharged as a sergeant.
            (4) Judge Damon Keith devoted his life to public service 
        and served more than 50 years on the Federal bench where he was 
        a champion for civil rights and individual liberties for all.
            (5) Judge Damon Keith served as one of the first cochairman 
        of the Michigan Civil Rights Commission at its inception in 
        1964 where he worked to oppose discrimination and enforce equal 
        protection under the law.
            (6) Judge Damon Keith was first nominated to the United 
        States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in 
        1967 by President Lyndon Johnson where he served as the first 
        African-American chief judge of the court from 1975 to 1977.
            (7) Judge Damon Keith became the sixth African American to 
        serve on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth 
        Circuit when he was nominated by President Jimmy Carter in 
        1977, where he served as senior judge on the court from May 1, 
        1995, until his passing.
            (8) Judge Damon Keith in a 1970 decision upheld the civil 
        rights of Pontiac, Michigan, students when he ordered a bus 
        policy and new boundaries in Pontiac, Michigan, schools in 
        order to end racial segregation.
            (9) Judge Damon Keith defended the protections guaranteed 
        under the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the United 
        States when he held in United States v. Sinclair, 321 F. Supp. 
        1074 (E.D. Mich. 1971), a landmark decision upheld by the 
        Supreme Court of the United States, that the United States 
        Government must obtain a warrant before beginning domestic 
        electronic surveillance.
            (10) Judge Damon Keith ruled against housing discrimination 
        in Garrett v. City of Hamtramck, 394 F. Supp. 1151 (E.D. Mich. 
        1975), where he ordered the city of Hamtramck, Michigan, to 
        relocate 500 African Americans who had been displaced by 
        federally supported urban renewal projects.
            (11) Judge Damon Keith worked throughout his career to 
        safeguard the civil liberties, civil rights, and voting rights 
        of all people of the United States while opposing housing, job, 
        and racial discrimination.
            (12) Judge Damon Keith has received more than 40 honorary 
        degrees as well as the Spingarn Medal from the National 
        Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the highest 
        honor of the organization for distinguished achievement, and 
        the Edward J. Devitt Distinguished Service to Justice Award, 
        the highest award that can be bestowed on a member of the 
        Federal judiciary.
            (13) Judge Damon Keith inspired generations of lawyers that 
        served under him as clerks and influenced the State of Michigan 
        for decades.
            (14) Judge Damon Keith, who coined the phrase ``democracies 
        die behind closed doors'', will be remembered for his 
        dedication to upholding the Constitution of the United States 
        and commitment to justice.

SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL.

    (a) Presentation Authorized.--The Speaker of the House of 
Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate shall make 
appropriate arrangements for the posthumous presentation, on behalf of 
Congress, of a gold medal of appropriate design in commemoration of 
Judge Damon Keith.
    (b) Design and Striking.--For purposes of the presentation referred 
to in subsection (a), the Secretary of the Treasury (referred to in 
this Act as the ``Secretary'') shall strike a gold medal with suitable 
emblems, devices, and inscriptions, to be determined by the Secretary.
    (c) Award of Medal.--
            (1) In general.--After the award of the gold medal referred 
        to in subsection (a), the gold medal shall be given to the 
        Smithsonian Institution, where it shall be displayed as 
        appropriate and made available for research.
            (2) Sense of congress.--It is the sense of Congress that 
        the Smithsonian Institution should make the gold medal received 
        under paragraph (1) available for display elsewhere, 
        particularly at other locations and events associated with 
        Judge Damon Keith.

SEC. 4. DUPLICATE MEDALS.

    The Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in bronze of the gold 
medal struck under section 3 under such regulations as the Secretary 
may prescribe, at a price sufficient to cover the cost, including 
labor, materials, dies, use of machinery, and overhead expenses, of the 
gold medal and any such duplicates.

SEC. 5. STATUS OF MEDALS.

    (a) National Medals.--The medals struck under this Act are national 
medals for purposes of chapter 51 of title 31, United States Code.
    (b) Numismatic Items.--For purposes of section 5134 of title 31, 
United States Code, all medals struck under this Act shall be 
considered to be numismatic items.
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