Civil Warrior

Howell Heflin, the conservative Alabama Democratic senator who championed civil rights legislation, has died at the age of 83. A former judge, he served on the Judiciary and Ethics Committee and was described as the conscience of the Senate, and helped defeat Robert Bork’s nomination for the Supreme Court, calling him a strange individual. He was less successful in defeating Clarence Thomas’ nomination, calling his testimony full of "contradictions, lack of scholarship, lack of conviction and instability." He also led the investigation of the Keating Five, which severely rebuked fellow Democrat Alan Cranston.