Clifford P. Case

Clifford Philip Case (April 16, 1904 – March 5, 1982) was an American lawyer and Republican Party politician who represented New Jersey's 6th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives (1945–1953) and the State of New Jersey in the United States Senate (1955–1979).

Biography

Clifford P. Case was born in Franklin Park in Somerset County, New Jersey. He attended the public schools of Poughkeepsie, New York, and graduated from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey with a baccalaureate degree in 1925 and from Columbia Law School in New York City in 1928. While he was at Rutgers University he joined The Delta Upsilon Fraternity.^[1]

Following his graduation from law school in 1928 he was admitted to the bar in 1928 and commenced practice in New York City. In 1938, Case was elected to the Common Council for the city of Rahway, New Jersey. He served in that capacity until 1942, when he was elected to the New Jersey General Assembly, where he served from 1943 to 1945. In 1944, Case ran and won election to the United States House of Representatives, serving in the Seventy-ninth, Eightieth, Eighty-first, Eighty-second, and Eighty-third Congresses. Case resigned from his seat in the House on 16 August 1953, when he took up the position of president of the Fund for the Republic from 1953 to 1954.

In 1954, Case ran for the United States Senate. He was strongly anti-McCarthy and so was opposed by conservative elements within his own party. During the campaign a New Jersey newspaper quoted former Communist Party leader Bella Dodd as saying that Case's sister Adelaide was "an active member of several Communist front groups." It was later revealed, however, that the Adelaide Case in question was not the candidate's sister but a college professor who had died in 1948.^[2][3]

In the general election, he defeated fellow U.S. Representative Charles R. Howell by a very narrow margin. In the Senate, he compiled one of the most liberal records of a Republican in the U.S. senate. He was re-elected in 1960, 1966 and 1972. Case won 22 votes for president at the 1968 Republican National Convention, losing the nomination to Richard Nixon. He also co-sponsored the Case-Church Amendment which prohibited further U.S. military activity in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia in 1973.

Case sought a fifth Senate term in 1978, but lost the Republican primary to Jeffrey Bell, an anti-tax conservative. Bell went on to lose the general election to Bill Bradley. No Republican has been elected to represent New Jersey in the Senate since Case's last victory in 1972.

After leaving the Senate, Case resumed the practice of law with Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle, a New York law firm. Case also lectured at Rutgers University's Eagleton Institute of Politics. He died in Washington, D.C. and was interred at the Somerville New Cemetery in Somerville, New Jersey.

His grandson, former Clinton Mayor Matthew Holt, was elected to the Hunterdon County Board of Chosen Freeholders in 2005. He ran for the General Assembly seat in the 23rd legislative district that was vacated by Marcia A. Karrow in January 2009.^[4]

References

External links

• Clifford P. Case at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Clifford P. Case in the Rutgers University Hall of Distinguished Alumni
• Clifford Philip Case at The Political Graveyard
• Clifford Philip Case at Rutgers University Libraries: This Web site serves as a companion to the permanent exhibition on the senator’s life and work which was installed in the Clifford P. Case Seminar Room at Alexander Library in October 2006.