Griffin, Robert Paul (1923-2015), a Michigan Republican, served as assistant minority leader of the U.S. Senate from 1969 to 1977. In that post, he had a major leadership role in the Republican Party.
Griffin was born in Detroit on Nov. 6, 1923. He graduated from Central Michigan University and the University of Michigan Law School. In 1956, he was elected to the first of five terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. He co-sponsored the 1959 Landrum-Griffin Act, a reform law aimed at dishonesty in labor unions. In May 1966, Griffin was appointed to the Senate to complete the term of Senator Patrick V. McNamara after McNamara’s death. He won election to a full term in November 1966 and served in the Senate until 1979.
Griffin played an important part in the 1968 Senate fight to deny confirmation of Associate Justice Abe Fortas as chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. In 1969, Griffin helped defeat the nomination of Judge Clement F. Haynsworth, Jr., of South Carolina to the Supreme Court seat that Fortas had resigned. Griffin died on April 16, 2015.
