Abner J. Mikva

Abner J. Mikva (between 1970 and 1978)

Abner Joseph Mikva (born January 21, 1926 in Milwaukee , Wisconsin , † July 4, 2016 in Chicago , Illinois ) was an American lawyer and politician . Between 1969 and 1973 and 1975 to 1979 he represented the state of Illinois as a member of the US House of Representatives ; he was then a federal judge and from 1994 to 1995 legal advisor to the White House under President Bill Clinton .

Career

During World War II , Mikva served in the United States Army Air Forces in 1944/45 . After studying law at the University of Chicago , he was admitted to the bar in 1951. In 1951/52 he was on the staff of Federal Judge Sherman Minton . At the same time he embarked on a political career as a member of the Democratic Party . From 1956 to 1966 he was a member of the Illinois House of Representatives .

In the 1968 congressional elections , Mikva was elected to the US House of Representatives in the second constituency of Illinois , where he succeeded Barratt O'Hara on January 3, 1969 . After being re-elected, he was able to complete two terms in Congress until January 3, 1973 . These were determined by the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement . In 1972 he was not re-elected and was thereafter a member of the Illinois State Ethics Committee. He also worked as a lawyer in Chicago and as a law professor at Northwestern University .

In the 1974 elections , Mikva was re-elected to Congress in the tenth district of his state, where he replaced Samuel H. Young on January 3, 1975 . After two re-elections he was able to remain in the US House of Representatives until his resignation on September 26, 1979. He stepped down to accept an appeal to judge the District of Columbia federal appeals court by President Jimmy Carter . Since 1991 he has chaired this court as successor to Patricia Wald . On September 19, 1994, he retired as a judge to become White House Counsel under Bill Clinton. He held this position until the following year.

Mikva was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2000).

As a long-time supporter of Barack Obama , Abner Mikva was also involved in his presidential election campaigns in 2008 and 2012. In 2014 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom .

Trivia

Mikva took on a small role in the 1993 movie Dave . He played himself as a judge who took his oath of office from the new US president.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Randi Belisomo: Chicago political icon Abner Mikva dies at 90 . ( Memento of July 6, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) WGN-TV, July 5, 2016, accessed on July 6, 2016 (English).
2. ^ Book of Members. (PDF) Retrieved July 23, 2016 (English). 

Web links

Commons : Abner J. Mikva  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Abner J. Mikva in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• Abner J. Mikva in the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges
• Abner J. Mikva in the nndb (English)