Bill Meier

William Carl "Bill" Meier (born 1940) is an attorney and a former member of the Texas State Senate from Hurst in Tarrant County, who holds the world filibuster record in a legislative body. In May 1977, near the close of the regular session, Meier spoke for forty-three hours against a worker's compensation bill that he considered "anti-business" in scope. His activity blocked the bill from being considered in the waning hours of the session. Bill was the father of three sons, Drew, Roger and Loren.

The previous filibuster record was for "only" twenty-four hours and was held by U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, when Thurmond spoke against the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Thurmond said that the measure, which created the Civil Rights Commission, an advisory body to Congress, and the Division of Civil Rights, headed by a separate assistant attorney general within the U.S. Department of Justice, was an affront to states' rights. The law was guided through Congress by two Texans, Speaker Sam Rayburn of Bonham and Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson, and signed into law by a native-born Texan, President Dwight D. Eisenhower. At the time of his filibuster against the Civil Rights Act, Thurmond was a segregationist. He later moderated his position on racial matters and served in the Senate from 1954-2003, a record tenure since surpassed by Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia.

Meier and Thurmond have another similarity beyond filibustering. Both switched his party affiliation from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party; Thurmond in 1964, and Meier in 1981.

Meier was the unsuccessful Republican nominee for Texas attorney general in the 1982 general election. Mark White vacated the position to become the Democratic nominee for governor and opposed Republican William P. Clements, Jr., of Dallas. Clements and his entire Republican slate was badly defeated. Meier lost to the Democratic Congressman James Albon Mattox, who vacated a Dallas-area U.S. House seat to become attorney general. Mattox called himself "the people's lawyer," and charged that Meier was a tool of business interests. Meier forfeited his state senate seat, then based about Euless in Tarrant County when he ran for attorney general.

In the 1974 Texas constitutional convention, which failed to produce a new governing document, Meier was chairman of the committee which formulated the duties and powers of the executive branch. In 1979, Meier was voted among the "Ten Worst Legislators" of that year's session by "Texas Monthly" magazine, a designation that does not always embarrass the selected member. In that same session, Meier was the president pro tempore of the Texas Senate.

On April 28, 2005, Meier was among several dozen living former Texas senators honored by the legislature.

References

* http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E06E3DE1F38F934A35755C0A964948260
* "Congressional Quarterly's Guide to U.S. Elections", Governor
* http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/sjrnl/79r/html/sj04-28-f.htm
* http://www.texasmonthly.com/mag/bestworst.php#1979
* http://www.lrl.state.tx.us/legis/leaders/presprotem.html
* http://find.intelius.com/search-summary-out.php?ReportType=1&searchform=name
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