Samuel James Ervin Jr.
U.S. Senator, North Carolina
In office June 5, 1954–December 31, 1974
Preceded by	Clyde R. Hoey
Succeeded by	Robert Burren Morgan
Born	September 27, 1896 Morganton, North Carolina
Died	April 23, 1985 Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Margaret Bell Ervin
Religion	Presbyterian

Samuel James Ervin Jr. (September 27, 1896 – April 23, 1985) was a Democratic United States Senator from the state of North Carolina from 1954 until 1974. He was a native of Morganton, Burke County, North Carolina. Image File history File links Please see the file description page for further information. ... The United States Senate is the upper house of the U.S. Congress, smaller than the United States House of Representatives. ... Official language(s) English Capital Raleigh Largest city Charlotte Area  Ranked 28th  - Total 53,865 sq mi (139,509 km²)  - Width 150 miles (240 km)  - Length 560[1] miles (901 km)  - % water 9. ... June 5 is the 156th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (157th in leap years), with 209 days remaining. ... 1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... December 31 is the 365th day of the year (366th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... Clyde Roark Hoey (11 December 1877 __ 12 May 1954) was the Democratic governor of the U.S. state of North Carolina from 1937 to 1941. ... Robert Burren Morgan (born 5 October 1925) was a Democratic U.S. Senator from the state of North Carolina between 1975 and 1981. ... September 27 is the 270th day of the year (271st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1896 (MDCCCXCVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Coordinates: County Burke County Founded 1777 Incorporated 1784 Mayor Mel L. Cohen Area    - City 47 km²  (19. ... Official language(s) English Capital Raleigh Largest city Charlotte Area  Ranked 28th  - Total 53,865 sq mi (139,509 km²)  - Width 150 miles (240 km)  - Length 560[1] miles (901 km)  - % water 9. ... April 23 is the 113th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (114th in leap years). ... 1985 (MCMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Nickname: Twin City, Camel City Motto: Youre Something Special in Winston-Salem Location in North Carolina Coordinates: Country United States State North Carolina Counties Forsyth County Founded Incorporated 1766 (Salem) 1849 (Winston) 1913 Mayor Allen Joines (D) Area    - City 283. ... Official language(s) English Capital Raleigh Largest city Charlotte Area  Ranked 28th  - Total 53,865 sq mi (139,509 km²)  - Width 150 miles (240 km)  - Length 560[1] miles (901 km)  - % water 9. ... The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States; the other being the Republican Party. ... Presbyterianism is part of the Reformed churches family of denominations of Christian Protestantism based on the teachings of John Calvin which traces its institutional roots to the Scottish Reformation, especially as led by John Knox. ... September 27 is the 270th day of the year (271st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1896 (MDCCCXCVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... April 23 is the 113th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (114th in leap years). ... 1985 (MCMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Democratic Party is one of two major political parties in the United States, the other being the Republican Party. ... Seal of the U.S. Senate The Senate is one of the two chambers of the bicameral United States Congress, the other being the House of Representatives. ... Official language(s) English Capital Raleigh Largest city Charlotte Area  Ranked 28th  - Total 53,865 sq mi (139,509 km²)  - Width 150 miles (240 km)  - Length 560[1] miles (901 km)  - % water 9. ... Coordinates: County Burke County Founded 1777 Incorporated 1784 Mayor Mel L. Cohen Area    - City 47 km²  (19. ... Burke County is a county located in the state of North Carolina. ...

Early life

Ervin served first as an officer, then as an enlisted soldier in combat in France during World War I. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the Silver Star and two Purple Hearts. He graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1917 and from Harvard Law School in 1922, with his military service sandwiched between his academic studies. Ervin was fond of saying that he was the only student to ever go through Harvard Law "backwards," because he took the third-year courses first, then the second-year courses, and finally the first-year courses. An officer is a member of a military or naval service who holds a position of responsibility. ... Combatants Allied Powers: Russian Empire France British Empire Italy United States Central Powers: Austria-Hungary German Empire Ottoman Empire Bulgaria Commanders Nicholas II Aleksei Brusilov Georges Clemenceau Joseph Joffre Ferdinand Foch Herbert Henry Asquith Douglas Haig John Jellicoe Victor Emmanuel III Luigi Cadorna Armando Diaz Woodrow Wilson John Pershing Franz... The Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) is the second highest military decoration of the United States Army, awarded for extreme gallantry and risk of life in actual combat with an armed enemy force. ... The Silver Star is the fifth highest military decoration that can be awarded to a member of the United States Armed Forces, and the third highest given for valor (in the face of the enemy). ... A Purple Heart medal For the plant genus, see Purpleheart. ... The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public, coeducational, research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. ... Harvard Law School (HLS) is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. ...

Already admitted to the Bar in 1919, before completing law school, Ervin entered politics straight out of Harvard. Even before he had received his degree, Democrats in Burke County, NC had nominated him in absentia for the North Carolina House of Representatives, to which he was elected in 1922, 1924, and 1930. Ervin also was elected and served as a state judge in the late 1930s and early 1940s. The North Carolina General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of North Carolina. ...

When his brother, U.S. Representative Joseph Wilson Ervin, committed suicide in late 1945, Sam Ervin filled the remainder of his term in Congress but did not seek re-election, allegedly vowing to never step foot in Washington, D.C. again.

U.S. Senate career

Ervin was serving as an associate justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court when he was appointed in June 1954 by the governor to fill the U.S. Senate seat of Clyde Hoey, who had died in office. He ran successfully for the seat in November 1954. The Supreme Court of North Carolina is the states highest appellate court. ... Clyde Roark Hoey (11 December 1877 __ 12 May 1954) was the Democratic governor of the U.S. state of North Carolina from 1937 to 1941. ...

Senator Ervin made a deep impact on American history through his work on two separate committees at the beginning and ending of his career that were critical in bringing down two powerful opponents: Senator Joe McCarthy in 1954 and President Richard M. Nixon in 1974. The Senate Select Committee to Investigate Campaign Practices, which investigated Watergate, was popularly known as the "Ervin Committee." Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin between 1947 and 1957. ... Nixon redirects here. ... The Watergate building. ...

Senator Ervin condemned the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision calling for desegregation of schools when he signed The Southern Manifesto in 1956. He later changed his mind on the Brown decision, but continued to oppose forced desegregation by the federal government, on 'states rights' grounds. Holding Racial segregation of students in public schools violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, because separate facilities are inherently unequal. ... The supreme court in some countries, provinces, and states, functions as a court of last resort whose rulings cannot be challenged. ... The Southern Manifesto was a document written in 1956 by legislators in the United States Congress opposed to racial integration in public places. ...

Senator Ervin's opposition to most civil rights legislation was based on his commitment to the preservation of the constitution in its pristine formulation that he repeatedly stated encapsulated civil, human and equal rights for all. There is little if any evidence that he engaged in the racial demagoguery of many of his Southern colleagues. Some historians consider Ervin's position to be one of "cognitive dissonance" because he opposed federal legislation to combat race-based discrimination, but did not do so in harsh, ugly terms. While he once maintained that Americans were entitled to "their prejudices as well as their allergies," he did not seem to be motivated by prejudice himself, but more by his suspicion of federal power. Civil rights or positive rights are those legal rights retained by citizens and protected by the government. ... The civil rights movement in the United States has been a long, primarily nonviolent struggle to bring full civil rights and equality under the law to all citizens of United States. ... Civil rights or positive rights are those legal rights retained by citizens and protected by the government. ... Human rights are rights which some hold to be inalienable and belonging to all humans. ... The Equal Rights Party was a Canadian political party that nominated two candidates in the 5 March 1891 federal election. ... Cognitive dissonance is the perception of incompatibility between two cognitions, which can be defined as any element of knowledge, including attitude, emotion, belief, or behavior; in other words, it is the uncomfortable tension that comes from holding two conflicting thoughts at the same time. ...

Meanwhile, Senator Ervin's strict construction of the constitution also made him a liberal hero for his support of civil liberties, his opposition to "no knock" search laws, the growing intrusions of data banks and lie-detector tests as invasions of privacy. In 1966, Senator Ervin played a major role in the defeat of a constitutional amendment to make prayer in public schools compulsory. // Usage of the word Liberal In the United States, the common meaning of liberal has changed over time. ... Civil liberties is the name given to freedoms that protect the individual from government. ... In telecommunications, a data bank is a repository of information on one or more subjects that is organized in a way that facilitates local or remote information retrieval. ... Polygraph results are sometimes recorded on a chart recorder A polygraph (commonly yet incorrectly referred to as a lie detector) is a device that measures and records several physiological variables such as blood pressure, heart rate, respiration and skin conductivity while the subject is asked a series of questions. ... Invasion of privacy is a legal term essentially defined as a violation of the right to be left alone. ... School prayer in its most common usage, refers to state-sanctioned and/or mandatory prayer of students in schools. ...

He got his start in investigative matters, even before Watergate, when in January 1970 it was revealed by Christopher Pyle, an investigator for Ervin's Judiciary Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights, that the U.S. Army was performing domestic investigations on the civilian population. Ervin's further investigations on the matter over the following years, together with the Church Committee inquiries, led to passage of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (after Ervin had left office). The Watergate building. ... // Investigations Christopher H. Pyle learned while in the U.S. Army in the 1960s that Army intelligence had 1,500 plainclothes agents watching every demonstration of 20 people or more throughout the United States [1] [2]. His disclosure of the Armys spying in January 1970 began the era we... See Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights ... The Church Committee is the common term referring to the United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, a U.S. Senate committee chaired by Senator Frank Church (D-ID) in 1975. ... The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978 prescribes procedures for the physical and electronic surveillance and collection of foreign intelligence information between or among foreign powers. FISA is codified in 50 U.S.C. §§1801-1811, 1821-29, 1841-46, and 1861-62. ...

Ervin gained lasting fame through his stewardship of the Senate Select Committee to Investigate Campaign Practices, also known as the Senate Watergate Committee, from the 1972 presidential election. Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield chose Ervin because it was unlikely Ervin was going to run for reelection in 1974, because he had no aspirations beyond his office, because of his knowledge of the law and the Constitution, and because he was an even-keeled, conservative, independent-minded Democrat. President Nixon thought at first that Ervin might potentially be partial to him, but that was not the case. The Senate Watergate Committee was a special committee convened by the United States Senate to investigate the Watergate scandal after it was learned that the Watergate burglars had been directed to break into and wiretap the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee by CREEP, President Richard Nixons re-election... Mike Mansfield, Congressional portrait This article describes the American politician. ...

Later life

Ervin resigned in December 1974, just before his term ended. After retirement, Ervin practiced law, wrote several books, and appeared in various commercials for products. In 1973, Ervin was recorded on CBS records on the LP record, Senator Sam At Home, which featured tracks of Ervin speaking his mind and telling anecdotes, separated by tracks of him singing popular songs.

As a lawyer, he served as a co-counsel with Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice PLLC on several high-profile cases, including a successful appeal in Joyner v. Duncan. His son, Samuel J. Ervin III, was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals by President Jimmy Carter in 1980. The senior Ervin died in 1985 at a hospital in Winston-Salem, North Carolina from complications of emphysema. He was 88 years old. English barrister 16th century painting of a civil law notary, by Flemish painter Quentin Massys. ... Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, PLLC, established in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in 1876, is one of the largest business law firms in the mid-Atlantic and Southeast regions of the United States. ... The United States Courts of Appeals (or circuit courts) are the mid-level appellate courts of the United States federal court system. ... James Earl Jimmy Carter, Jr. ... Nickname: Twin City, Camel City Motto: Youre Something Special in Winston-Salem Location in North Carolina Coordinates: Country United States State North Carolina Counties Forsyth County Founded Incorporated 1766 (Salem) 1849 (Winston) 1913 Mayor Allen Joines (D) Area    - City 283. ...

Oddly, since Ervin's retirement, no one has held his former Senate seat for more than one term to this day. It is currently held by Richard Burr. Richard Mauze Burr (born November 30, 1955) is a United States Senator from Winston-Salem, North Carolina. ...

External links

• Congressional Biography
• Campbell, Karl E. Senator Sam Ervin and the Army Spy Scandal of 1970-1971: Private Balancing National Security and Civil Liberties in a Free Society. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission. Retrieved on 1 December 2005.
• Dickenson, James R. (April 24, 1985). "Senator Sam Ervin, Key Figure In Watergate Probe, Dies". Washington Post: A01.