[Applause] it is my great pleasure and extraordinary honor to present public council's William O Douglas award to speaker amerita Nancy Pelosi [Applause] [Music] can you imagine how what a hero I'm going to be to my children and grandchildren when they know that you gave me this award so let's give her such a beautiful round of applause thank you so much for honoring us with your presence for honoring me with your remarks what an honor thank you was big enough to be getting an honor from public Council but to be getting it from you makes it delicious and let's hear it for the blue cat Express who've [Music] entertained they made it so lovely for for us as well as those of us who served us this evening have been acknowledged again and again you are such I just have to say again that it's such an honor uh to have Uso present this award you are such an inspiration to so many making women of color and girls women and color of girls feel seen and heard not just on our screens but in many critical conversations in the Public Square and congratulations to you and your husband on the birth of your daughter last year the beat goes on I also like to recognize and congratulate my fellow awardees this evening Mattel and corporate corporate Achievement Award and Monger HS and Olen for their pro bono award how wonderful congratulations and thank you all for your Civic leadership and speaking of Civic leadership let us applaud our host chairman Dan grunfeld CEO Chris Jackson dinner chair Bruce uh cornicle corn Michael and all of those from public Council isn't it wonderful I have to pause though here and say that the surprise for me tonight was to see Fred Nicholas I have known Fred Nicholas for over 45 years when we all supported Leo McCarthy when he was Speaker of the House Fred thank you for your work in establishing public Council and also for being with us this evening and didn't Tanya do a great job bring us all together tonight congratulations Tanya on your new leadership role as well so often in government we say that our responsibility must be to honor the vision of our Founders the sacrifice of our men and women in uniform and the aspirations of our children that is exactly what P public Council does all of us are in awe of the work you do tearing down barriers to Legal resources and serving as the tireless voice for the voiceless as we all know you don't have rights if you don't have access to counsel thank you all for the proon work that you all do actually patriotic is your Center for veterans advancement which means a great deal to all of us what you're doing defending our heroes who put their lives on the line to defend us and particularly moving was to hear about your children's rights project helping those too young to help themselves and putting them on a path to reach their fulfillment whether they're girls girls and women immigrant children all of the rest this is patriotic work and honors the words e eted on the Ed edifice of the highest court in the land already presented by J Epstein I told him I'd be qu quoting him tonight Equal justice under the law on behalf of Congress and of our country thank you public Council it is with immense respect and admiration for your leadership that I humbly accept your William O Douglas award and now m and how meaningful is to for me to join in such a distinguished and historic group of previous Douglas honores civil rights Legend dor s wera whose 90th birthday we celebrated Under the Dome of the capital and we're blessed to have with us tonight glor wear it's up and Ellie wiisel whom you saw in the film who 20 12 Douglas award ceremony I joyfully attended and it was my solemn privilege to speak at his funeral so we had those connections the conscience of the Congress our beloved John Lewis who was also in the film whose funeral I had the honor of Hosting at the United States capital but I was brought here by David Johnson and Suzanne I have had the pleasure of knowing and the pleasure of introducing um the year he was awarded the founders award thank you David thank you Susan Norah Johnson for your leadership I'm also Associated to be proud with the President Clinton and secretary Clinton and many many more who not only made history but made progress now I'm I want to tell you another personal reason why I'm so thrilled to be with all of you tonight how thrilled am I my dear husband Paul Pelosi is with me tonight [Applause] so he isn't always go out with these things but this is very special for us the name of this award named for justice Douglas he was a Titan of the Supreme Court you all know that whose defense of individual liberties and justice for all will Echo throughout the ages he's probably the most liberal Supreme Court Justice we ever had following though in the footsteps of Justice brandise who paved the way there's so many distinguished guest here who I am honored to be with but on this very special occasion for me because of deck because decades ago I had the privilege of meeting Justice Douglas how many of you can make that claim probably Fred Nicholas I was just out of college and working in the the office of our newly elected Senator Daniel Brewster of Maryland and I'm from Maryland even though I've lived in with over 50 years in San Francisco um when the Justice visited our office you have to know he was formidable officially physically personally I was determined to learn more about his leadership he was a champion of the environment as a leading conservation on the Supreme Court do trees have standing [Laughter] not yet but soon and he was a member of the board of the Sierra Club of course he was an unsurpassed hero for the right to privacy and civil liberties especially demonstrated in the grizwald versus Conneticut decision I mention I mentioned that because it's it's it leads the way to so many things as we all know in the 72 722 decision written by Justice Douglas the Court ruled that the constitution did in fact protect marital privacy and then this would lead to further expansion of Liberty in the Windsor case and the obber Jal jel decision indeed as we look at Griswald as the Bedrock of our right to privacy even as the current Court disrespects this pres privacy in the Constitution and the presidents of the Court we have work to do I was in the room for the oral arguments of w jel as one who proudly voted against defensive Marriage Act in the 90s this is now in the teens by then I had become the house Democratic leader and the Republic well this isn't partisan this is Civic the Republicans no that Civic what are we talking about here the Republicans try to strip the Supreme Court or the courts of the right to judicial review over domma the Defense of Marriage Act we don't know what marriage they were defending but nonetheless Doma and we fought them when we fought them and you know what they maintained they maintained that the court did not have a right of review because Madison mer mury versus Madison was wrongly decided that's what they maintain so when the oral arguments were taking place one of the justices asked did the Republicans know that Doma was unconstitutional when they passed it of course they did that's why they tried to strip the court of the right to judicial review now in the court those of you who have argued before the court or attended you know you cannot move you sit there if you adjust your glasses they think you're GNA take a picture of somebody or something he said is I was ready to jump out of my chair and say of course they knew that's why they but nonetheless we won the case another good decision expanding Freedom America has always been about expanding freedom from the abolition of slavery right to vote right for acts to vote votes right for women to vote the list goes on expanding Freedom until dos until the dobs decision overturning roie Wade and Thomas's statement undermining privacy in the Constitution and the president of the Court also placed in doubt other landmark decisions the court has so much power over freedoms environmental Freedom economic Justice Integrity of our elections and including with its horrendous citizens united decisions that's why so much is now so much now is at stake I have lived in San Francisco for more than five decades a place where Justice Douglas is revered because of his championing of the environment civil rights and so much more but I grew up in Baltimore as was mentioned thank you for mentioning my dear father my brother was mayor too of Baltimore so we we take great pride that Baltimore is a place where the national anthem was written my favorite line in the anthem where I start cheering at the game you know is when it says things gentlemen gave proof Pro through the night that our flag is still there and this difficult time is our mission to prove through the night that our flag is still there and it's still there as we pledge each day with liberty and justice for all right now we are engaged in a battle for the soul of our rep public and for our fundamental freedoms and for the survival of our democracy I hope that doesn't sound political because this is about patriotism this is about Civics this is about our constitution for the rule of law one person one vote the right to privacy which Justice Douglas defended even for truth itself so if you want to give me the Douglas award I have to talk about those things sad this is a trend not confined to our Shores across the world we see Despicable even violent attacks on Democracy Justice Douglas warned us against that as Citizens we must be vigilant he said and this is what he said as Nightfall does not come at once neither does oppression he wrote a half century ago it is in such Twilight that we must be aware of the change in the air however slight l we become victims of the darkness preserving our democracy is the task of our time it is our patriotic Duty the price we pay for citizenship is the great in the greatest country on Earth you do agree that this is the greatest country on Earth and it will require decent people on both sides of the aisle United by a zealous commitment to our Founders Majestic experiment to set aside our differences to come together and to defend our freedoms while we didn't like everything that our Founders wrote we do like that they wrote to amend the Constitution for more freedom so in the spirit of unity I'll close my remarks by referencing the words of a Republican president Teddy Roosevelt now this will sound familiar to you because he spoke of Public Service as getting into the AR Ena being a participant not just a spectator well as public Council and all the leaders here tonight know full well being in the arena is not for the faint of heart because in the arena you have to be willing to take a punch you have to be able to willing to throw a punch for the children thank you public Council just all that you showed us tonight was so inspiring give us so giving us so much hope thank you for your patriotism and for your leadership which strengthen our nation which make America more American and public Council and thank you again for this distinguished honor which I will proudly display in my official office in cap on Capitol Hill and treasure for all of my days God bless public Council and may God continue to bless America thank you all so much