Editing Birch Bayh (section)

== United States Senator ==
[[File:John F. Kennedy meets with Birch Bayh.jpg|thumb|right|President [[John F. Kennedy]] meets with Birch Bayh and [[Marvella Bayh]] in 1962]]
[[File:LBJ-Bayh.jpg|thumb|right|Bayh with President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] in 1967]]
[[File:Jimmy Carter with Senator Birch Bayh - NARA - 182837.tif|thumb|right|Bayh with President [[Jimmy Carter]] in 1978]]

=== Drafter of constitutional amendments ===
As a freshman senator, Bayh was assigned to the [[United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary]] and the [[United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works]]. While his service on the Public Works Committee allowed him to assist [[Hoosier]] with various problems, Bayh's work on the subcommittees of the Judiciary Committee had the most lasting effect.<ref name="Cruikshank" />

Bayh was serving on the [[United States Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution]] in August 1963 when its chairman, [[Estes Kefauver]], died of a heart attack. Judiciary Committee Chairman [[James Eastland]] planned to terminate the subcommittee to save money, but Bayh offered to serve as chairman and pay for its staff out of his Senate office budget. Thus, Bayh assumed the Constitutional Amendments Subcommittee chairmanship less than a year into his first term.<ref name="Cruikshank" /> As chairman, Bayh was the principal architect of two constitutional amendments.<ref name=":0">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/14/obituaries/birch-bayh-dead.html |title=Birch Bayh, 91, Dies; Senator Drove Title IX and 2 Amendments |last=Clymer |first=Adam |date=March 14, 2019 |newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=March 16, 2019 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

==== Presidential disability and succession ====
After President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]]'s health issues in the 1950s, Congress began studying the Constitution's dangerously weak and vague provisions for presidential disability and vice presidential succession. The 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy brought a new urgency to the matter. Bayh introduced an amendment on December 12, 1963, which was studied and then re-introduced and passed in 1965 with [[Emanuel Celler]], chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.<ref name="Cruikshank" /> The resulting [[Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution]], ratified in 1967, created a process for a [[peaceful transition of power]] in the case of death, disability, or resignation of the President, and a method of selecting a vice president when a vacancy occurs in that office.<ref name="Goodheart" /> It has since been invoked six times,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/amendments/amendment-xxv|title=The 25th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution|website=National Constitution Center|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190314223236/https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/amendments/amendment-xxv|archive-date=March 14, 2019|access-date=March 17, 2019}}</ref> most notably in the 1973 vice presidential and 1974 presidential succession of Gerald Ford.<ref name=":0" />

In 1968, Bayh wrote ''One Heartbeat Away'', a book about the passage of the Twenty-fifth Amendment. In the foreword, Lyndon Johnson describes the accomplishment as, "He initiated and brought to fruition the first major alteration of Presidential and Vice-Presidential succession procedures since the ratification of the Constitution". The book's preface is by former President Eisenhower, who wrote about the sixteen times there had been a vacancy in the office of Vice President and the measures taken to authorize Vice President Richard Nixon to act in his stead during the illnesses he experienced as president.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Blaemire|first=Robert|title=Birch Bayh: Making a Difference|publisher=Indiana University Press|year=2019|isbn=978-0-253-03917-0|location=Herman B Wells Library, 1320 East 10th Street, Bloomington, Indiana 47405|pages=77}}</ref>

==== Lowering the voting age to 18 ====
[[File:Senator Birch Bayh addresses a group of students.jpg|thumb|Bayh speaking on a college campus, ca. 1970s.]]As a state legislator in the 1950s, Bayh unsuccessfully worked to lower the voting age in Indiana. He continued his effort in the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he also met opposition. In 1970, a new provision was added to the [[Voting Rights Act of 1965]], lowering the voting age to 18 in all federal, state, and local elections. Then with the 1971 ''[[Oregon v. Mitchell]]'' decision, the Supreme Court ruled that state and local elections did not have to abide by the lowered voting age, though there would have to be dual elections in the 47 states where the lower federal voting age was not valid. Faced with another constitutional crisis, Bayh's subcommittee quickly began hearings on an amendment to lower the voting age to 18. What became the [[Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution]] passed through Congress within weeks of the Supreme Court's decision, and was ratified by the states within months.<ref name="Cruikshank" /> 
As such, Senator Bayh is the only person since the Founding Fathers to have drafted more than one amendment to the United States Constitution.<ref name="Goodheart" />

=== 1964 plane crash ===
On June 19, 1964, Bayh, his wife, United States Senate member [[Ted Kennedy]] of [[Massachusetts]] and legislative aide Edward Moss were on a small plane that crashed near [[Springfield, Massachusetts]]. The group was flying from [[Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport]] (then known as Washington National Airport) to the Massachusetts Democratic party's convention, where Bayh was to be the keynote speaker. Senators Bayh and Kennedy were delayed by a vote which passed the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]]. It had been held up by a filibuster. At approximately 11 p.m., the plane descended through heavy fog and crashed into an apple orchard. Bayh suffered muscular trauma and his wife fractured two vertebrae, but they were able to walk out of the wreckage. Kennedy was seriously injured, fracturing three vertebrae, breaking ribs and puncturing a lung, while Moss and the pilot, Edwin J. Zimny, suffered fatal injuries.<ref name=":4">{{cite book |last=Lippman Jr. |first=Theo |title=Senator Ted Kennedy |year=1976 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company Inc. |location=New York |pages=24–6}}</ref> Thrown to the front of the plane, Kennedy could not move from his waist down and could not reply to Bayh's calling, "Is there anybody alive up there? Is anybody alive?" Bayh smelled gas and thought the plane might catch fire and explode, so he went back into the fuselage to check for survivors. At this point, Kennedy called out, "I'm alive, Birch!" and Bayh pulled Kennedy out of the plane to safety. Bayh went back again to check on Moss and Zimny, but they were unresponsive. Bayh and his wife then walked to the road to call for help.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kennedy |first=Edward M. |title=True Compass |url=https://archive.org/details/truecompassmemoi00kenn/page/218 |url-access=registration |year=2009 |publisher=Twelve |location=New York|pages=218–221}}</ref>

In 1980, Bayh endorsed President [[Jimmy Carter]] for reelection, a decision that rankled the staff of Ted Kennedy, who was challenging Carter for the Democratic presidential nomination. Kennedy's campaign adviser [[Bob Shrum]] called Bayh "a son of a bitch" in front of Kennedy, but as Shrum wrote in his memoir, "Kennedy was disappointed in Bayh, but he didn't want to hear anyone bitching about him. Bayh, he said, had a pass, and always would".<ref>{{cite book |last=Shrum |first=Robert |title=No Excuses: Concessions of a Serial Campaigner |url=https://archive.org/details/noexcusesconcess00shru/page/89 |url-access=registration |year=2007 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York |page=89|isbn=9780743296519 }}</ref>

=== Women's rights ===
==== Equal Rights Amendment ====
The [[Equal Rights Amendment]] (ERA), to establish equal rights for men and women under the [[Constitution of the United States]], was first introduced in 1923 and then in every subsequent Congress for the next fifty years, with little to no success.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.archives.gov/legislative/features/griffiths|title=Martha Griffiths and the Equal Rights Amendment|date=August 15, 2016|website=National Archives|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181203223807/https://www.archives.gov/legislative/features/griffiths|archive-date=December 3, 2018|access-date=March 17, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/22/march-22-1972-equal-right-amendment-for-women-passed-by-congress/|title=Equal Rights Amendment for Women Passed by Congress (March 22, 1972)|date=March 22, 2012|website=[[The New York Times]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181203010330/https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/22/march-22-1972-equal-right-amendment-for-women-passed-by-congress/|archive-date=December 3, 2018|access-date=March 17, 2019}}</ref>

In 1970, Bayh witnessed one of these efforts to pass the ERA languish and fail due to poor-wording and "[[Wrecking amendment|poison pill]]" conservative amendments.<ref name="Cruikshank" /> Through his Constitutional Amendments Subcommittee, Bayh drafted a new version of the ERA to be taken up by the [[92nd United States Congress]]. Bayh based his appeal on extending the rights already guaranteed in the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution]] to a person's gender. The new version immediately won support from two important Senators who had opposed the earlier bill: Ted Kennedy and [[Robert P. Griffin]], the assistant Republican leader.<ref>{{cite news|author1-link=Eileen Shanahan (journalist)|last=Shanahan |first=Eileen |title=BAYH SUBSTITUTES EQUAL RIGHTS BID |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/10/15/archives/bayh-substitutes-equal-rights-bid-new-version-to-be-studied-when.html|access-date=February 10, 2013 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=October 15, 1970}}</ref> After the House approved its version under the leadership of [[Martha Griffiths]] of Michigan, the Senate easily passed Bayh's ERA in March 1972, sending it to the states for ratification.<ref>{{cite news |last=Shanahan |first=Eileen |title=Equal Rights Amendment Is Approved by Congress |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/03/23/archives/equal-rights-amendment-is-approved-by-congress-equal-rights.html|access-date=February 10, 2013 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=March 23, 1972}}</ref> The amendment had seven years to win approval in thirty-eight states. Thirty states ratified the ERA within the first two years, and another four joined in 1974 and 1975. Bayh's home state of Indiana was the final state to ratify the ERA in January 1977, but by then, three states had rescinded their ratification, and three more would do so by the end of 1979.<ref name="Cruikshank" /> Bayh successfully fought to extend the seven-year ratification period to June 30, 1982,<ref>{{cite news |title=SENATORS SEEK EXTENSION OF EQUAL RIGHTS DEADLINE |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/05/18/archives/senators-seek-extension-of-equal-rights-deadline.html|access-date=February 10, 2013 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=May 18, 1978}}</ref> but the Equal Rights Amendment ultimately failed.<ref name=":1" />

Bayh would later say he never anticipated how effective conservative activist [[Phyllis Schlafly]] "telling flat-out lies" would be. "[Bayh] says he will never forget", the [[Associated Press]] reported, "how she went on Indiana television, set her [[Social Security number|Social Security card]] on fire and argued that women would lose constitutional protections if ERA won".<ref>{{cite news |last=Feinsilber |first=Mike |title=ERA — Why did it fail? |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=QPlLAAAAIBAJ&pg=3228,995125&|access-date=February 10, 2013 |newspaper=Spokesman-Review |date=July 4, 1982}}</ref>

==== "The Father of Title IX" ====
[[File:BirchWorkout.jpg|thumb|Bayh exercising with Title&nbsp;IX athletes at Purdue University, ca. 1970s.]]Bayh was influential in the addition of [[Title IX]] to the Higher Education Act,<ref name=":1" /> to give women equal opportunities in public education. Bayh was Title IX's author, the first person to introduce it in Congress,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/14/politics/birch-bayh-indiana-senator/|title=Ex-Sen. Birch Bayh, author of constitutional amendments and Title IX, dies at 91|last=Bohn|first=Kevin|date=March 14, 2019|publisher=[[CNN]]|access-date=March 17, 2019}}</ref> and its chief Senate sponsor.<ref name=":1" />
As Bayh was getting the Equal Rights Amendment out of committee,<ref name="Cruikshank" /> the [[Higher Education Act of 1965]] was on the floor for reauthorization, and on February 28, 1972, Senator Bayh introduced the ERA's equal education provision as an amendment.<ref>118 Cong. Record 5802-3 (1972).</ref>

In his remarks on the Senate floor, Bayh said, "We are all familiar with the stereotype of women as pretty things who go to college to find a husband, go on to [[postgraduate education]] because they want a more interesting husband, and finally marry, have children, and never work again. The desire of many schools not to waste a 'man's place' on a woman stems from such stereotyped notions. But the facts absolutely contradict these myths about the 'weaker sex' and it is time to change our operating assumptions".<ref>118 Cong. Record 5804 (1972).</ref>

"While the impact of this amendment would be far-reaching", Bayh concluded, "it is not a panacea. It is, however, an important first step in the effort to provide for the women of America something that is rightfully theirs&nbsp;— an equal chance to attend the schools of their choice, to develop the skills they want, and to apply those skills with the knowledge that they will have a fair chance to secure the jobs of their choice with equal pay for equal work".<ref>118 Cong. Record 5808 (1972).</ref>

Title&nbsp;IX became law on June 23, 1972,<ref>[http://www.now.org/issues/title_ix/history.html "Legislative History of Title&nbsp;IX"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100624070911/http://www.now.org/issues/title_ix/history.html |date=June 24, 2010}} National Organization for Women. June 27, 2007.</ref> and is best known for expanding opportunities for female athletes. Bayh has since been called "the father of Title IX".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://abcnews.go.com/US/title-ix-40th-anniversary-equal-rights-womens-sports/story?id=16629846 |title=Happy Birthday, Title IX! Equal Rights for Women's Sports |date=June 23, 2012 |website=ABC News}}</ref>

=== Haynsworth and Carswell nominations ===
During the [[91st United States Congress]], Bayh successfully led the Senate opposition to two of President [[Richard Nixon]]'s nominees to the [[Supreme Court of the United States]].

In August 1969, Nixon nominated [[Clement Haynsworth]], a federal judge of the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit]], to a vacancy on the Supreme Court created by the resignation of [[Abe Fortas]] on May 14, 1969.<ref>{{cite news |last=Sheehan |first=Neil |title=C. F. Haynsworth Named by Nixon for High Court |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1969/08/19/archives/c-f-haynsworth-named-by-nixon-for-high-court-us-appellate-judge.html|access-date=April 14, 2013 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=August 19, 1969}}</ref> Labor and civil rights leaders, concerned with Haynsworth's conservative record on workers' and civil rights, soon discovered that Haynsworth had recently ruled in a favor of a company in which he owned stock, and after questioning him on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Bayh felt Haynsworth did not recognize his own conflict of interest.<ref name=Cruikshank /> By October, Bayh was widely recognized as "the leading opponent"<ref>{{cite news |agency=Associated Press |title=Hollings Pushes Debate With Indiana's Senator |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=hoMsAAAAIBAJ&pg=1914,2024921&dq=|access-date=April 14, 2013 |newspaper=Spartanburg Herald-Journal |date=October 11, 1969}}</ref> of the nomination, and The ''[[New York Times]]'' reported how he "worked with his staff into the night to complete a "bill of particulars" of alleged financial conflicts by Judge Haynsworth",<ref>{{cite news |last=Graham |first=Fred P. |title=Senator Defends Haynsworth Acts |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1969/10/08/archives/senator-defends-haynsworth-acts-hollings-contends-charges-are.html|access-date=April 14, 2013 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=October 8, 1969}}</ref> ultimately uncovering several additional instances where Haynsworth had conflicts and misled in his Senate Judiciary testimony.<ref>{{cite news |last=Graham |first=Fred P. |title=Haynsworth Foes Enlist 2 Leaders Of Senate G.O.P. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1969/10/09/archives/leading-republicans-oppose-choice-for-high-court-haynsworth-foes.html|access-date=April 14, 2013 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=October 9, 1969}}</ref> Thus, in November 1969, Bayh and 54 other senators rejected the nomination.<ref>{{cite news |agency=Associated Press |title=Senate Rejects Haynsworth 55-45 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=P0xSAAAAIBAJ&pg=6250,661368&|access-date=April 14, 2013 |newspaper=St. Petersburg Times |date=November 22, 1969}}</ref>

On January 19, 1970, Nixon nominated [[G. Harrold Carswell]] of Florida, whom the Senate had confirmed to the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit]] exactly seven months earlier. Carswell's judicial record was even more conservative then Haynsworth's and generally acknowledged to be mediocre, but after the earlier defeat of the latter's nomination, most doubted there would be another major battle. Then a group of [[Yale Law School]] students visited Bayh in Washington and asked how they could help. Bayh suggested that they research every case that Carswell had decided in his judicial career.<ref name=Cruikshank /> They did so and reported back that Carswell's civil rights decisions had been reversed sixty percent of the time.<ref>{{cite news |last=Graham |first=Fred P. |title=Carswell relies on precedent |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=sZ4yAAAAIBAJ&pg=980,1178046& |access-date=April 14, 2013 |newspaper=The Palm Beach Post |date=January 22, 1970 }}{{Dead link|date=August 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> With their research in hand, "Bayh led the opposition interrogation of Carswell in the two weeks of committee hearings", ''[[United Press International]]'' reported.<ref>{{cite news |last=United Press International |title=Liberals Try Delay |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=rFBPAAAAIBAJ&pg=3933,3364065&|access-date=April 14, 2013 |newspaper=The Times-News |date=February 17, 1970}}</ref> The Senate rejected Carswell's nomination by a vote of 51 to 45.<ref>{{cite news |agency=Reuters |title=Nixon snubbed as court nominee Carswell defeated |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=RYIuAAAAIBAJ&pg=1022,2241838&|access-date=April 14, 2013 |newspaper=The Montreal Gazette |date=April 9, 1970}}</ref>

Nixon publicly criticized Bayh and Senate opponents for overstepping their proper constitutional role, to which Bayh replied in a Senate floor speech by quoting from [[Article Two of the United States Constitution]] and calling the President "wrong as a matter of constitutional law, wrong as a matter of history and wrong as a matter of public policy".<ref>{{cite news |last=Graham |first=Fred P. |title=Bayh Says Nixon Errs On His Role |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/04/03/archives/bayh-says-nixon-errs-on-his-role-scores-view-of-presidential-power.html|access-date=April 14, 2013 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=April 3, 1970}}</ref> [[Harry Blackmun]] was ultimately nominated and confirmed to fill the vacancy.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Mackenzie |first1=John P. |title=Blackmun Confirmed 94 to 0 |work=Los Angeles Times |date=May 13, 1970}}</ref> Bayh later supported and voted to confirm Nixon's nomination of [[Lewis F. Powell Jr.]], whom he knew well from work on the Twenty-fifth Amendment.<ref name=Cruikshank />

In an undated White House memorandum made public on June 27, 1973, Bayh's name appeared on the [[master list of Nixon's political opponents]], a supplement to [[Nixon's Enemies List]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Lists of White House 'Enemies' and Memorandums Relating to Those Named |url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F2061EFE3F5F10738DDDA10A94DE405B838BF1D3|access-date=June 11, 2013 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=June 28, 1973}}</ref>

=== Electoral College reform ===
The proposed Constitutional change with which Bayh was most closely associated in his final years in the Senate was his attempt to eliminate the [[United States Electoral College]] (the method of electing the [[President of the United States]]) and replace it with a popular vote in the 1960s and 1970s.<ref name=":2">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/14/opinion/birch-bayh-constitution.html |title=Opinion: The Man Who Changed the Constitution, Twice |last=Wegman |first=Jesse |date=March 14, 2019 |newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=March 16, 2019 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> One of Bayh's proposals passed the House easily but was [[filibuster]]ed in the Senate. In 1977 he introduced reform legislation into the Senate,<ref name=":3">
{{cite web |url=http://www.every-vote-equal.com/pdf/EVE-Foreword-Bayh.pdf |title=Foreword |work=Every Vote Equal | access-date=March 28, 2009 |first=Birch |last=Bayh |author-link=Birch Bayh |date=March 1, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080905054552/http://www.every-vote-equal.com/pdf/EVE-Foreword-Bayh.pdf |archive-date=September 5, 2008 |quote=On January 10, 1977, I introduced S.J. Res.1, a proposed Amendment to the Constitution to abolish the Electoral College and provide for direct election of the President and Vice President of the United States. As Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments, I held five days of hearings on this ... |url-status=dead }}
</ref> but it never achieved the [[Article Five of the United States Constitution|required two-thirds vote in either house of Congress]].<ref name=":2" /> In 2006, he joined the [[National Popular Vote Inc.]] coalition, which aims to effect Electoral College reform through an [[National Popular Vote Interstate Compact|interstate compact]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://supreme.findlaw.com/legal-commentary/the-bill-to-move-the-country-toward-direct-presidential-elections-why-californias-governor-schwarzenegger-and-other-governors-should-sign-it.html |title=The Bill To Move the Country Toward Direct Presidential Elections Why California's Governor Schwarzenegger, And Other Governors, Should Sign It |last=Amar |first=Vikram |date=September 29, 2006 |website=Findlaw |access-date=March 16, 2019}}</ref> Bayh wrote a foreword to the book ''Every Vote Equal'' by [[John Koza]], a co-founder of National Popular Vote.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":5">{{cite web |url=https://politi.co/2HiGmxj |title=Former Indiana Sen. Birch Bayh dies at 91 |last=Cohen |first=David |date=March 14, 2019 |website=Politico |access-date=March 16, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/11/electoral-college-gives-trump-and-gop-boost/576448/ |title=The Electoral College Conundrum |last=Richards |first=Parker |date=November 23, 2018 |website=The Atlantic |access-date=March 16, 2019}}</ref>

=== Prison reform for juvenile offenders ===
As chairman of the Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency, Bayh was the author, sponsor and chief architect of the [[Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act]], overhauling the youth prison system, including the requirement that juvenile offenders be separated from adults.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://libraries.indiana.edu/birch-bayh-biography |title=Birch Bayh Biography |date=November 2, 2009|access-date=September 16, 2016}}</ref> After chairing 1971 hearings on brutality and corruption in the youth prison system,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/05/04/archives/senators-told-of-brutality-to-young-offenders-juvenile-justice-in.html |title=Senators Told of Brutality to Young Offenders |author=Nan Robertson |date=May 4, 1971 |newspaper=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331|access-date=September 16, 2016}}</ref> Bayh introduced legislation in February 1972, which was signed into law in 1974.<ref>{{cite news |title=Juvenile-crime bill on Ford's desk |last=Stuart |first=Peter C. |date=September 6, 1974 |work=The Christian Science Monitor|id={{ProQuest|511682519}} }}</ref> Besides the deinstitutionalization of noncriminal offenders, it also created the [[Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention]] within the Department of Justice, to ensure ongoing protections. The landmark legislation was reauthorized in 2002.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ojjdp.gov/about/legislation.html |title=Legislation/JJDP Act |website=www.ojjdp.gov|access-date=September 16, 2016}}</ref> During the October 3, 1977, signing ceremony for H. R. 6111, an extension of the [[Runaway and Homeless Youth Act]], President [[Jimmy Carter]] noted his discontent with Bayh not being in attendance as he had "been very instrumental in the passage of this act".<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=6736 |title=Juvenile Justice Amendments of 1977 Remarks on Signing H.R. 6111 Into Law. |date=October 3, 1977 |publisher=American Presidency Project |first=Jimmy |last=Carter |author-link=Jimmy Carter}}</ref>

=== 1976 presidential campaign ===
Bayh intended to run for the [[1972 Democratic Party presidential primaries|1972 Democratic nomination]] for president, but his wife was diagnosed with [[cancer]] and he put his plans on hold. Before her death in 1979, Marvella Bayh became a leading anti-cancer activist.

On October 21, 1975, Bayh announced his candidacy for the [[1976 Democratic Party presidential primaries|1976 Democratic nomination]] in a tour of his native state. "People are looking to someone who can talk to them in terms they can understand", he said while struggling with [[laryngitis]] that day.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Witcover |first1=Jules |title=Bayh Announces Presidential Bid |work=The Washington Post |date=October 22, 1975}}</ref> With a liberal record and farm boy demeanor, Bayh's candidacy was premised on his 'electability.' His campaign literature was headlined, "Yes He Can".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Mohr |first1=Charles |title=Bayh's Main Premise: That He's Electable |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E03EED61138E53BBC4C51DFB467838E669EDE|access-date=July 31, 2014 |work=The New York Times |date=December 24, 1975|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140810222142/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E03EED61138E53BBC4C51DFB467838E669EDE|archive-date=August 10, 2014|url-status=dead }}</ref> In December 1975, Bayh came within a tenth of a percentage point from receiving the endorsement of the influential New Democratic Coalition, a liberal organization based in New York that helped [[George McGovern]] win the 1972 Democratic presidential nomination.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Shogan |first1=Robert |title=Bayh Fails by Minuscule Margin to Win Presidential Support of Liberal Coalition |work=Los Angeles Times |date=December 7, 1975}}</ref>

On the eve of the January 19, 1976, [[Iowa caucuses]], Bayh and former Georgia Gov. [[Jimmy Carter]] were considered the leading candidates.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Apple Jr. |first1=R.W. |title=Carter and Bayh Favored in Iowa |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/01/19/archives/carter-and-bayh-favored-in-iowa-2-seem-ahead-in-todays-democratic.html|access-date=July 31, 2014 |date=January 19, 1976}}</ref> Bayh ultimately finished a distant third behind Uncommitted delegates and Carter,<ref>{{cite news |last1=Apple Jr. |first1=R. W. |title=Carter Is Regarded As Getting Big Gain From Iowa Results |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9806EFD9103CE334BC4951DFB766838D669EDE|access-date=July 31, 2014 |work=The New York Times |date=January 21, 1976|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140810222051/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9806EFD9103CE334BC4951DFB766838D669EDE|archive-date=August 10, 2014|url-status=dead }}</ref> seemingly hindered by his support for women's rights. "Bayh has become the focal point of the [abortion] issue", said the executive director of the [[National Right to Life Committee]], since Bayh opposed a constitutional amendment banning abortion before his subcommittee.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Charles |first1=Charles |title=Abortion Dispute Troubling Bayh |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/02/12/archives/abortion-dispute-troubling-bayh-senator-is-target-of-more-picketing.html|access-date=July 31, 2014 |date=February 12, 1976}}</ref> Liberal support did not coalesce and Bayh finished third in the [[New Hampshire|New Hampshire primary]] and then seventh in the Massachusetts primary.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Mohr |first1=Charles |title=How the Bayh Race Deteriorated |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/03/04/archives/how-the-bayh-race-deteriorated.html|access-date=July 31, 2014 |date=March 4, 1976}}</ref>

Bayh suspended his campaign on March 4, 1976, after 136 days as a formal candidate. At his final press conference, he said, "I'm not prepared to crawl under a rock and say the future of Birch Bayh is over".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Claiborne |first1=William |title=Bayh Ends Quest for Nomination |work=The Washington Post |date=March 5, 1976}}</ref>

=== Bayh–Dole Act ===
[[File:Bayh and Dole.jpg|thumb|Bayh meeting with then Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole in Washington, 1985.]]
In early 1978, the question of who owns government-funded research and who could therefore profit from it became personal for Bayh, as Marvella's cancer returned and the Bayhs learned that a technology that could predict a patient's reaction to [[chemotherapy]] was held up by restrictions on patent rights for federally sponsored research discoveries. This was part of a larger problem of stifling promising inventions, with 22 funding agencies disposing of patent rights in 22 different ways at the time.<ref name="Cruikshank" />

Bayh invited [[United States Senate]] member [[Bob Dole]], a Republican from [[Kansas]], to craft a uniform policy. Together, they drafted the university and Small Business Patent Procedures Act, known as the [[Bayh–Dole Act]],<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/2019/03/14/703578607/former-indiana-sen-birch-bayh-a-great-hoosier|title=Former Indiana Sen. Birch Bayh — 'A Great Hoosier'|last=Smith|first=Brandon|date=March 14, 2019|work=[[NPR]]|access-date=March 17, 2019}}</ref> which allows United States universities, small businesses, and non-profit organizations to retain [[intellectual property]] rights of inventions developed from [[Funding of science#Public/State Funding|federal government-funded research]]. It was signed into law by President Carter on December 12, 1980.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/patent-and-trademark-system-reform-statement-signing-hr-6933-into-law|title=Patent and Trademark System Reform Statement on Signing H.R. 6933 Into Law|last=Carter|first=Jimmy|date=December 12, 1980|website=[[University of California, Santa Barbara|The American Presidency Project]] (www.presidency.ucsb.edu)|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190317041401/https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/patent-and-trademark-system-reform-statement-signing-hr-6933-into-law|archive-date=March 17, 2019|access-date=March 17, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.columbia.edu/cu/21stC/issue-3.1/odza.html|title=Bayh-Dole and technology transfer|last=Odza|first=Michael|date=1998|website=[[Columbia University]] ("21stC", vol. 3.1)|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180517035327/http://www.columbia.edu/cu/21stC/issue-3.1/odza.html|archive-date=May 17, 2018|access-date=March 17, 2019}}</ref>

In 2002, ''[[The Economist]]'' magazine said, "Possibly the most inspired piece of legislation to be enacted in America over the past half-century was the Bayh–Dole Act of 1980".<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.economist.com/technology-quarterly/2002/12/12/innovations-golden-goose |title=Innovation's golden goose |date=December 12, 2002 |newspaper=The Economist}}</ref> A 2015 study determined that from 1996 to 2013, patent licensing made possible by Bayh–Dole increased gross industry output by approximately $1 trillion, supporting 3.8 million jobs in the United States.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Pressman |first1=Lori |title=The Economic Contribution of University/Nonprofit Inventions in the United States: 1996-2013 |url=https://www.bio.org/sites/default/files/BIO_2015_Update_of_I-O_Eco_Imp.pdf |publisher=Biotechnology Industry Organization|access-date=March 24, 2015|display-authors=etal}}</ref>

=== Senate reelection campaigns ===
[[File:Birch Bayh speaking at 1968 DNC.jpg|thumb|Bayh speaking at the [[1968 Democratic National Convention]]]]
Bayh ran for [[United States Senate elections in Indiana|reelection]] to the U.S. Senate three times. In the 1968 general election, Bayh defeated challenger [[William Ruckelshaus|William D. Ruckelshaus]] with 51.7% of the vote against a strong Republican tide, becoming only the fourth Indiana Democrat to be popularly elected to a second term in the Senate.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=BgQqAAAAIBAJ&pg=4665,3287363&dq |work=The Milwaukee Journal|via=Google News Archive Search}}{{Dead link|date=August 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> In 1974, Bayh narrowly defeated Indianapolis Mayor [[Richard Lugar]], garnering only 50.7 percent of the vote in what was otherwise a disastrous year for Republicans.<ref name=":6">{{cite web|url=http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/1974election.pdf|title=Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 5, 1974|last1=Guthrie|first1=Benjamin J.|last2=Jennings|first2=W. Pat|author-link2=W. Pat Jennings|date=August 1, 1975|website=[[United States House of Representatives|House.gov]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181113055920/http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/1974election.pdf|archive-date=November 13, 2018|access-date=March 17, 2019}}</ref><ref name=":7">{{cite web|url=https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=6361|title=U.S. Senate election results (Indiana, 1974)|date=January 22, 2004|website=Our Campaigns|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180724093219/https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=6361|archive-date=July 24, 2018|access-date=March 17, 2019}}</ref> Two years later, Lugar won Indiana's other Senate seat by ousting Democratic incumbent [[Vance Hartke]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/1976election.pdf|title=Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 2, 1976|last1=Guthrie|first1=Benjamin J.|last2=Henshaw|first2=Edmund L.|date=April 15, 1977|website=[[United States House of Representatives|House.gov]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181113055925/http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/1976election.pdf|archive-date=November 13, 2018|access-date=March 17, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=3449|title=U.S. Senate election results (Indiana, 1976)|date=November 2, 1976|website=Our Campaigns|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181215172712/https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=3449|archive-date=December 15, 2018|access-date=March 17, 2019}}</ref>

In 1980, Bayh faced [[United States House of Representatives]] member and future [[Vice President of the United States]] [[Dan Quayle]]. Bayh engaged the challenger in seven debates,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=-29RAAAAIBAJ&pg=6589,4231440&dq= |title=Veep Debate Finally Matters|work=Toledo Blade|via=Google News Archive Search}}</ref> and was defeated for reelection in the [[Reagan's coattails|Republican landslide year]], with 46.2% of the vote to Quayle's 53.8%.<ref name=":8">{{cite web|url=http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/1980election.pdf|title=Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 4, 1980|last1=Ladd|first1=Thomas E.|last2=Henshaw|first2=Edmund L.|date=April 15, 1981|website=[[United States House of Representatives|House.gov]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181113055933/http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/1980election.pdf|archive-date=November 13, 2018|access-date=March 17, 2019}}</ref><ref name=":9">{{cite web|url=https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=3883|title=U.S. Senate election results (Indiana, 1980)|date=January 9, 2003|website=Our Campaigns|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306054929/https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=3883|archive-date=March 6, 2016|access-date=March 17, 2019}}</ref>