Jacob Javits
United States Senator
Died when: 81 years 293 days (981 months)Star Sign: Taurus
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Jacob Koppel Javits (/ˈdʒævɪts/ JAV-its;May 18, 1904 – March 7, 1986) was an American lawyer and politician.During his time in politics, he represented the state of New York in both houses of the United States Congress.
A member of the Republican Party, he also served as the state's Attorney General.Generally considered a liberal Republican, he was often at odds with his own party.
A supporter of labor unions, Great Society and civil rights, he played a key role in the passing of civil rights legislation.
An opponent of the War in Vietnam, he drafted the War Powers Resolution in 1973.Born to Jewish parents, Javits was raised in a tenement on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
He graduated from the New York University School of Law and established a law practice in New York City.During World War II, he served in the United States Army's Chemical Warfare Department.
Outraged by the corruption of Tammany Hall, Javits joined the Republican Party and supported New York Mayor Fiorello H.La Guardia.
He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1946 and served in that body until 1954.In the House, Javits supported President Harry S.
Truman's Cold War foreign policy and voted to fund the Marshall Plan.He defeated Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr. in the 1954 election for Attorney General of New York, and defeated Democrat Robert F.
Wagner Jr. in the 1956 United States Senate elections.In the Senate, Javits supported much of Lyndon B.Johnson's Great Society programs and civil rights legislation, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
He voted for the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution but came to question Johnson's handling of the Vietnam War.To rein in presidential war powers, Javits sponsored the War Powers Resolution.
Javits also sponsored the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, which regulated defined-benefit private pensions.In 1980, Javits lost the Republican Senate primary to Al D'Amato, who campaigned to Javits's right.
Nonetheless, he ran in the general election as the Liberal Party nominee.He was defeated by D'Amato, alongside Democratic nominee Elizabeth Holtzman.
Javits died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in West Palm Beach, Florida in 1986.
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