Abe Fortas
United States federal judge
Died when: 71 years 290 days (861 months)Star Sign: Gemini
Abraham Fortas (June 19, 1910 – April 5, 1982) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1965 to 1969.
Born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, Fortas graduated from Rhodes College and Yale Law School.He later became a law professor at Yale Law School and then an advisor for the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission.Fortas worked at the Department of the Interior under President Franklin D.Roosevelt, and was appointed by President Harry S.
Truman to delegations that helped set up the United Nations in 1945.In 1948, Fortas represented Lyndon B.Johnson in the hotly contested Democratic senatorial second primary electoral dispute, and he formed close ties with the president-to-be.
Fortas also represented Clarence Earl Gideon before the U.S.Supreme Court, in a landmark case involving the right to counsel.
Nominated by Johnson to the Supreme Court in 1965, Fortas was confirmed by the Senate, and maintained a close working relationship with the president.
As a Justice, Fortas wrote several notable majority opinions including Tinker v.Des Moines Independent Community School District.In 1968, Johnson tried to elevate Fortas to the position of chief justice of the Supreme Court, but that nomination faced a filibuster and was withdrawn.
Fortas later resigned from the Court after a controversy involving his acceptance of $20,000 from financier Louis Wolfson while Wolfson was being investigated for insider trading.
The Justice Department including future Chief Justice William Rehnquist investigated Fortas at the behest of President Richard Nixon who saw the idea of removing Fortas as a chance to move the Court in a more conservative direction, and Attorney General John N.
Mitchell pressured Fortas into resigning.After retirement, Fortas returned to private practice, sometimes appearing before the justices with whom he had served.
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