Abe Fortas
Abraham "Abe" Fortas (born June 19, 1910 in Memphis , Tennessee , † April 5, 1982 in Washington, DC ) was a Supreme Court Justice of the United States .
biography
The son of an Orthodox Jewish carpenter studied after attending South Side High School and Southwestern College from 1930 to 1933 at Yale Law School and graduated with a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.). He then worked until 1937 as a professor at Yale Law School. In addition to practicing law , he was the editor of the Yale Law Journal . During the Second World War he was retired from military service because of an eye disease .
After the Second World War, in 1946 he co-founded and partnered the Arnold & Porter Company law firm, which today employs 625 lawyers. Next to it was a member of the American Bar Association and member of the Board of Trustees (Board of Trustees) of the Law Society (American Judicature Society Board of Trustees).
On October 4, 1965, he was appointed Justice of the United States Supreme Court by US President Lyndon B. Johnson . He held this office until his resignation on May 14, 1969.
During his tenure as a judge, he acted as a majority opinion representative in the following major decisions:
- Miranda v. Arizona (1966)
- Loving v. Virginia (1967)
Nomination as Chief Justice, Scandal and Resignation
In 1968, President Johnson nominated Fortas as Chief Justice after former Chief Justice Earl Warren announced his retirement. However, when resistance to Forta's confirmation arose in the US Senate , the president withdrew his nomination in October 1968. Fortas received a $ 15,000 lecture fee for nine speeches at the American University Washington College of Law. Since the fee came from private sources, numerous US senators questioned his independence. However, the withdrawal of his nomination as Chief Justice did not affect his position as Associate Justice, which he retained.
In 1969 it was also announced that Fortas had received in January 1966 from financier Louis Wolfson a sum of USD 20,000 as attorney's fee for unspecified advice. The fee agreement also provided for a lifetime annual payment of USD 20,000 to Fortas and, in the event of death, to his widow. Wolfson was involved in an investment fraud lawsuit at the time of payment and has subsequently requested Fortas to lob President Johnson twice for a pardon . Fortas said he did not do so and returned the $ 20,000 to Wolfson after the deal became known. When this became known to Chief Justice Warren, he privately asked Fortas to resign. After a motion for impeachment was tabled in the House of Representatives , Fortas resigned on May 14, 1969. On July 5, 1969, his portrait appeared on the cover of TIME magazine.
Also in 1969, Johnson's successor Richard Nixon named Warren E. Burger as the new Chief Justice, which the Senate also confirmed. As a replacement for Fortas, Nixon initially unsuccessfully nominated Clement Haynsworth and G. Harrold Carswell , until his candidate Harry A. Blackmun was finally confirmed by the Senate in 1970 at the third attempt .
After Fortas' retirement from the Supreme Court, he went into the private sector and served on the Board of Directors of Braniff International Airways and Vice President of the Federated Department Stores .
Publications
- Concerning Dissent and Civil Disobedience (1969) ( On dissent and civil disobedience )
Web links
- Abe Fortas in the nndb (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ "1969 Year in Review: Supreme Court" , United Press International , 1969
- ↑ Laura Kalman (1990): Abe Fortas . New Haven (Connecticut) : Yale University Press . ISBN 9780300173697 . Retrieved May 13, 2020
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Fortas, Abe |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Fortas, Abraham |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American lawyer, United States Supreme Court Justice |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 19, 1910 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Memphis , Tennessee |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 5th 1982 |
| Place of death | Washington, DC |