Abe Fortas

Who was Abe Fortas?

Abraham "Abe" Fortas was a U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice from 1965 to 1969. Originally from Memphis, Tennessee, Fortas became a law professor at Yale University, and then an advisor for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Fortas next worked at the Department of the Interior under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and during that time President Harry S. Truman appointed him to delegations that helped set up the United Nations in 1945.

Later on in private legal practice in 1948, Fortas represented Lyndon Johnson in the hotly contested Democratic Senatorial Second Primary electoral dispute, and he made close ties with the president-to-be. Fortas also represented Clarence Earl Gideon before the U.S. Supreme Court, in a case involving the right to counsel.

As an appointee to the Supreme Court by Johnson, Fortas maintained a close working relationship with the president, and in 1968 Johnson tried to elevate Fortas to the position of Chief Justice, but that nomination faced a filibuster because at least in part to the ethics problems that later caused him to resign from the Court. Fortas returned to private practice, sometimes appearing before the judges with whom he had served, and his successor, Justice Blackmun.