Recap: 2013 Republican Lawyer of the Year Honoring George Terwilliger

George Terwilliger (Center) the 2013 Republican Lawyer of the year with(L-R) RNLA Chair Randy Evans, RNLA Board of Governors member Chuck Cooper, Senator Ted Cruz, Mr. Terwilliger, Senator Jeff Sessions, 2004 Lawyer of the Year Dick Wiley, and former White House Counsel Fred Fielding

Tuesday evening, RNLA held a reception in honor of the 2013 Republican Lawyer of the Year George J. Terwilliger III.  The reception featured stars of both the legal and political world gathering together to honor George’s incredible career. 



RNC Chair Reince Priebus congratulates Mr. Terwilliger.

The reception led off with a strong showing by former Virginia Senator John Warner. Although no longer in office, he has not lost a step.  RNLA 2012 Lawyer of the Year J.C. Boggs then introduced RNC Chairman Reince Priebus who both saluted George and thanked the RNLA.  Reince spoke about working with George back when he was the RNC General Counsel and working with RNLA as much as he is allowed to by law. 

Next, Senator Jeff Sessions spoke.  Senator Jeff Sessions had glowing remarks of George and discussed their time together as fellow U.S. Attorneys.  Senator Sessions also discussed current events a bit. He was incrediblly gracious and stayed around afterwards to meet the attendees.  Senator Sessions will always be an RNLA favorite and is a past winner of the RNLA Ed Meese Award. 

A few of George’s collegues, friends and those near and dear to him also spoke about him.  First, a key colleague in his government and professional career, Tim Flanigan, former Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel.  Next was former RNLA Chair David Norcross who spoke about George’s incredible career in political law.  Last in this group of speakers was George’s favorite, his son Zachary Terwilliger.  His son would neither confirm nor deny the rumor that George was born with his beard. 

George got up and gave a very heartwarming speech thanking many close to him.  George took a moment to recognize one special member of the crowd, a member of Seal Team 6, Peter Osyf.  Mr. Terwilliger also recognized his partner and fellow RNLA Award Winner, Fred Fielding in the audience.  Mr. Fielding was the 2013 RNLA Ed Meese award winner. 

2004 Republican Lawyer of the Year, Dick Wiley wrapped up the master of ceremonies duties, but the program was not quite done. 

The program closed with Senator Ted Cruz.  Senator Cruz was introduced by his former law partner Chuck Cooper.  He spoke about just missing George at Morgan Lewis and more importantly Senator Cruz spoke about working with George for long and insane hours in Florida in 2000 during the craziness that was the effort to confirm President George W. Bush’s narrow victory in 2000.  Mr. Terwilliger was a leader in that effort. 
 

Senator Cruz also spoke about the importance of the law, even in the Senate.  His speech was powerful and made an impact on the attendees.  The Senator was gracious enough to shake hands and take pictures with many of the attendees afterwards.

As important as the speeches and presentations were, the event was also thoroughly enjoyable to all who attended it.  In addition to share a glimpse into the career and life of one of the foremost Republican lawyers, guests were able to meet and get their pictures with the legal elite of law and politics. 

Congratulations to George.  We are proud to honor him as the 2013 Republican Lawyer of the Year. 

Please take a look at some of the pictures from the event here.

The Rise of the Fourth Branch

Yesterday, at the Federalist Society's Executive Branch Review Conference an extensive debate about the Rise of the Fourth Branch took place. RNLA’s Lawyer of the Year George Terwilliger took part. He spoke on the Criminal Law at the Federal Level Panel and started by saying that:

Liberty is the cornerstone of our constitutional system and that economic liberty is affected by over-criminalization because it is an economic drag.

He then went into talking about the Fourth Branch with respect to criminal law saying:

Criminal law has its place but that place is to protect the means and instrumentalities of commerce, not the power to enforce arbitrary regulations. These regulations are offensive to principles of fundamental fairness because people don’t know what the regulations are. There also can be disagreements about the interpretation of the regulations. Congress empowers agencies to write the regulations and the regulations define the crimes.

He argued that in order to correct this problem there needs to be a:

Rededication to fairness based on knowing and intentional conduct. Congress also needs to be held accountable because we shouldn’t be regulating commerce through criminal statutes.

Other speakers at the event included Former Congressman David McIntosh, Law Professor Jonathan Turley and Senator Ted Cruz.

Congressman McIntosh started by talking about how as the regulatory state has exploded, regulatory rights have disappeared. He also brought up issues with Separation of powers because Government agencies have the ability to circumvent the intended boundaries established by the constitution. Another practical problem is what constitutes due process in an agency action because the scales are usually heavily weighted in favor of the Agency. Especially with the adoption of the Chevron doctrine, which states that Agency interpretation, is given significant weight in court cases.

Professor Turley spoke about how the founders tried to arrange the branches in such a way that they were captured in orbit. With the rise of the Fourth Branch, administrative agencies have become insulated and independent. Our government wasn’t designed for four branches and that this transition is dangerous because unaccountable Federal agencies are dominating the government.

Senator Cruz talked about the expansion of the “Administrative State” and how it is "one the scariest things" of our time. He said the government is about two things: Power and Accountability. Bureaucrats who are not accountable to the people make these decisions. He ended by saying that the constitution was designed as chains bind the mischievous government.

The rise of the Fourth Branch is a frightening phenomenon because under Obama the government keeps growing as more and more nonelected bureaucrats are put into positions where they can impact Americans with additional regulations. At this point it’s unrealistic to think that even Obama has authority over all of these regulations being put onto small businesses and ordinary Americans. What we should be striving for is a smaller government that is more accountable to the people and not one that arbitrarily imposes regulations that harm our economy.

           

After his display yeaterday, it is only fitting that George Terwilliger will be honored as the Republican Lawyer of the Year on June 25, 2013 at the Capitol Hill Club.