Abe Fortas
Abe Fortas
Abe Fortas (1910-82), American jurist and associate justice of the Supreme Court, born on June 19, 1910, in Memphis, Tennessee, and educated at Southwestern College in Memphis and Yale University, where he studied law. Graduating first in his class, he was immediately appointed to the faculty of the law school. From 1937 to 1942, he held many positions in the federal government; he was an undersecretary in the Department of the Interior from 1942 to 1946. In 1946 he left government service to practice law, but his advice on legal and political matters was continuously sought. He was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965, taking the seat of Justice Arthur J. Goldberg. In 1968 Fortas was nominated by President Johnson to replace Chief Justice Earl Warren. Confirmation by the U.S. Senate was blocked by a filibuster, and the nomination was withdrawn at the request of Fortas. In May 1969, Fortas resigned from the Supreme Court under pressure of public criticism of his outside financial interests, which were widely held to be inconsistent with the conduct expected of a member of the court. After his resignation, he returned to private practice. Fortas died on April 5, 1982, in Washington, D.C. (1)
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