Abe Fortas

US Supreme Court justice from 1965 to 1969

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 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 dispute over the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination , and he formed close ties with Johnson. Fortas also represented Clarence Earl Gideon before the U.S. Supreme Court in the landmark case _Gideon v. Wainwright _, 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 landmark opinions in cases such as _In re Gault _ and _Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District _.

In 1968, Johnson tried to elevate Fortas to the position of Chief Justice of the United States , but that nomination faced a filibuster and was withdrawn.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 investigated Fortas at the behest of President Richard Nixon . Attorney General John N. Mitchell pressured Fortas into resigning. Following his resignation, Fortas returned to private practice, occasionally appearing before the justices with whom he had served.

Early years

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Abe Fortas was the youngest of five children born to Orthodox Jewish immigrants Woolfe Fortas (Yiddish : וואָלף פאָרטאַס) and Rachel "Ray" Berzansky Fortas (Yiddish : רחל בערזשאנסקי פארטאס) in Memphis, Tennessee . [_page needed
] Woolfe, originally from Russia, worked as a cabinetmaker, and together with Rachel, who hailed from Lithuania, they operated a store. [page needed
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Fortas developed a lifelong passion for music, largely influenced by his father, who encouraged him to play the violin —an instrument he would cherish throughout his life. He took lessons from local Catholic nuns at St. Patrick's School, which was just a block away from his home on Pontotoc Street. He also studied chamber music with the leader of a local trio. Because of his musical talents, he earned the nickname "Fiddlin' Abe Fortas." By the age of thirteen, he was playing in a dance band called the "Blue Medley Boys," which helped support him and his family. After graduating second in his class from South Side High School in 1926 at the age of sixteen, Fortas won a scholarship to Southwestern at Memphis, which is now known as Rhodes College . During his college years, he supported himself by working as a shoe salesman and performing as a violinist, as well as giving violin lessons to local children. Although he initially considered pursuing a degree in music , he ultimately decided to focus on English and political science , graduating at the top of his class in 1930.

Fortas earned scholarships from both Harvard Law School and Yale Law School but ultimately decided to attend Yale, becoming the youngest law student there at 20 years old. He became editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal and graduated cum laude and second in the class of 1933. One of his professors, William O. Douglas , was impressed with Fortas, and Douglas arranged for Fortas to stay at Yale to become an assistant professor of law.

Shortly thereafter, Fortas took on a series of government positions, including with the Agricultural Adjustment Administration and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in Washington, D.C.

In 1937, he was made assistant director of the public utilities division at the SEC. Throughout this period, Fortas commuted between New Haven and Washington in order to fulfill his responsibilities both to Yale and to the government.

Personal life

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One of Fortas's former residences (left) in Georgetown , Washington, D.C.

In 1935, Fortas married Carolyn E. Agger, who became a successful tax lawyer. They had no children, and after his appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States , they lived at 3210 R Street NW in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C.

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