Hart, Philip A.

Philip A. Hart of Michigan (1912–1976) entered the Senate in 1959 as one of a class of freshman Democrats destined for prominence. Some, like Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota and Edmund S. Muskie of Maine, ran for president. Another, Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, became Senate majority leader. Hart distinguished himself in a different way, earning the unofficial title of “conscience of the Senate.”

Hart's political views were to the left of the majority, but he was revered for his honesty, fairness, and intellectual depth. A soft-spoken man who did not seek the limelight, Hart worked diligently on the details of legislation and had a talent for making his points without offending those who disagreed. Before he died of cancer in December 1976, at the end of his third term, the Senate voted to name a new office building after him. It was an honor accorded to only two other senators before him, Everett M. Dirksen and Richard B. Russell.

Hart played an important role in the framing and passage of major legislation on voting rights, open housing, drug safety, and consumer credit. As chair of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly, he held extensive hearings on economic concentration but had difficulty moving legislation because of the opposition of conservatives on the panel. Hart prevailed in 1976 when the subcommittee released, and Congress approved, an antitrust law that authorized the states to bring class-action suits on behalf of citizens.

On the major issues of his time, Hart stood with the liberals. He advocated strict gun control, opposed capital punishment, and refused to join opponents of school busing. He took part in the Democrats' successful efforts to block two of President Richard Nixon's nominees to the Supreme Court: Clement F. Haynsworth Jr. and G. Harrold Carswell. He fought the controversial antiballistic missile (ABM) system and opposed the war in Vietnam. His wife Jane Hart, an earlier and more militant antiwar activist, was arrested in a demonstration at the Pentagon.

Hart frequently was at odds with Mississippi Democrat James O. Eastland, chair of the Judiciary Committee and a foe of civil rights legislation. Still, Eastland later spoke warmly of Hart and described him as “a man of principle, courage and intellectual honesty.” Similar praise came from virtually the entire Senate at the end of Hart's eighteen years there. The Hart Building, opened in 1982 after many delays and revised cost estimates, was the most expensive of the six congressional office buildings, costing close to $140 million.