Birch Bayh

Birch Bayh
Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee
In office January 3, 1979 – January 3, 1981
Preceded by	Daniel Inouye
Succeeded by	Barry Goldwater
United States Senator from Indiana
In office January 3, 1963 – January 3, 1981
Preceded by	Homer Capehart
Succeeded by	Dan Quayle
Speaker of the Indiana House of Representatives
In office November 5, 1958 – November 9, 1960
Preceded by	George Diener[1]
Succeeded by	Richard Guthrie
Member of the Indiana House of Representatives from the Vigo County district
In office November 3, 1954 – November 7, 1962
Preceded by	John Brentlinger[2]
Succeeded by	Hubert Werneke
Personal details
Born	Birch Evans Bayh Jr. (1928-01-22)January 22, 1928 Terre Haute, Indiana, U.S.
Died	March 14, 2019(2019-03-14) (aged 91) Easton, Maryland, U.S.
Resting place	Arlington National Cemetery
Political party	Democratic
Spouses	Marvella Hern ​ ​ (m. 1952; died 1979)​ Kitty Halpin ​ (m. 1981)​
Children	2, including Evan
Education	Purdue University (BS) Indiana State University Indiana University Bloomington (LLB)
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch/service	United States Army
Years of service	1946–1948
Rank	Private (1st Class)

Birch Evans Bayh Jr. (/baɪ/;^[3] January 22, 1928 – March 14, 2019) was an American Democratic Party politician who served as U.S. Senator from Indiana from 1963 to 1981. He was first elected to office in 1954, when he won election to the Indiana House of Representatives; in 1958, he was elected Speaker, the youngest person to hold that office in the state's history. In 1962, he ran for the U.S. Senate, narrowly defeating incumbent Republican Homer E. Capehart. Shortly after entering the Senate, he became Chairman of the Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments, and in that role authored two constitutional amendments: the Twenty-fifth—which establishes procedures for an orderly transition of power in the case of the death, disability, or resignation of the President of the United States—and the Twenty-sixth, which lowered the voting age to 18 throughout the United States. He is the first person since James Madison and only non–Founding Father to have authored more than one constitutional amendment. Bayh also led unsuccessful efforts to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment and eliminate the Electoral College.

Bayh authored Title IX of the Higher Education Act of 1965, which bans gender discrimination in higher education institutions that receive federal funding. He also authored the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act, and co-authored the Bayh–Dole Act, which deals with intellectual property that arises from federal-government-funded research. Bayh voted in favor of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1968,^[4][5] as well as the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the confirmation of Thurgood Marshall to the U.S. Supreme Court.^[6][7] He led the Senate opposition to the nominations of Clement Haynsworth and G. Harrold Carswell, two of Richard Nixon's unsuccessful Supreme Court nominees. Bayh intended to seek the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972, but declined to run after his wife was diagnosed with cancer. He sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1976, but dropped out of the campaign after disappointing finishes in the first set of primaries and caucuses.

Bayh won re-election in 1968 and 1974, but lost his 1980 bid for a fourth term to Dan Quayle. After leaving the Senate, he remained active in the political and legal world. His son, Evan Bayh, served as the 46th Governor of Indiana and held his father's former U.S. Senate seat from 1999 to 2011.