# Abe Fortas *American lawyer and associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1965–1969* Abe Fortas (born Abraham Fortas; June 19, 1910 – April 5, 1982) was a lawyer from [[Memphis]], Tennessee, who sat as an associate justice of the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] between 1965 and 1969.[^1] A graduate of Rhodes College and Yale Law School, he taught law at Yale and advised the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.[^1] He then held posts at the Department of the Interior under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1945 President Harry S. Truman named him to delegations that helped set up the United Nations.[^1][^2] In 1948 Fortas represented [[Lyndon Johnson]] in the dispute over the Democratic nomination for a U.S. Senate seat from Texas.[^1] He also represented Clarence Earl Gideon before the Supreme Court in *Gideon v. Wainwright*, a case on the right to counsel.[^1] Johnson nominated him to the Court in 1965, and the [[United States Senate]] confirmed him. On the bench he wrote opinions in *In re Gault* and *Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District*, which the Wikipedia article calls landmark cases.[^1] Johnson's 1968 nomination of Fortas as Chief Justice of the United States was withdrawn after a filibuster.[^1] Fortas later resigned from the Court amid controversy over his acceptance of $20,000 from the financier Louis Wolfson while Wolfson was under investigation for insider trading.[^1] The Wikipedia article states that the Justice Department investigated Fortas "at the behest of President Richard Nixon" and that Attorney General John N. Mitchell pressured him to resign. The pack holds no primary filing on these events.[^1] After leaving the Court he returned to private practice and at times appeared before the justices with whom he had served.[^1] ## Early years Fortas was the last of five children of Orthodox Jewish immigrants who ran a store in Memphis: Woolfe Fortas, a cabinetmaker from Russia, and Rachel "Ray" Berzansky Fortas, from Lithuania.[^3] His father encouraged him to take up the violin. He studied it with Catholic nuns at St. Patrick's School, a block from the family home on Pontotoc Street. By thirteen he was playing in a dance band, the "Blue Medley Boys," that helped support the family.[^3] He finished second in his class at South Side High School in 1926, aged sixteen. He then went on scholarship to Southwestern at Memphis, now Rhodes College, where he paid his way by selling shoes and by playing and teaching violin.[^3] He studied English and political science there and graduated first in his class in 1930.[^3] Harvard and Yale law schools both offered him scholarships, and he chose Yale. At 20 he was its youngest law student. He served as editor-in-chief of the *Yale Law Journal* and graduated cum laude, second in the class of 1933.[^3] One of his professors, [[William O. Douglas]], was impressed by him.[^3] ## Personal life In 1935 Fortas married Carolyn E. Agger, who became a successful tax lawyer.[^4] They had no children. After his appointment to the Court they lived in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C.[^4] The social anthropologist Meyer Fortes was his first cousin.[^4] In Washington he played violin in a string quartet on Sunday evenings. Rudolf Serkin, Isaac Stern and Pablo Casals were among his friends.[^4] He was also a friend of Luis Muñoz Marín, Puerto Rico's first democratically elected governor. He visited the island often and lobbied Congress on its behalf. He took part in drafting the Constitution of Puerto Rico and advised Muñoz Marín's administration on request.[^4] José Ferrer played Fortas in the 1980 film *Gideon's Trumpet*.[^4] ## Early career Fortas left Yale in 1939 to become general counsel of the Public Works Administration in Roosevelt's administration, and later Undersecretary of the Interior.[^2] Interior Secretary Harold L. Ickes introduced him to Johnson, at the time a young Texas congressman.[^2] In October 1943 the Interior Department granted him leave to enlist in the United States Navy, and he trained at Naval Training Station Sampson, New York.[^2] That December he was honorably discharged after doctors found that an arrested case of ocular tuberculosis made him medically unfit. He had resigned his Interior post while in the Navy and was reappointed in January 1944.[^2] In 1945 Truman named him an adviser to the U.S. delegation at the founding meeting of the United Nations in San Francisco. He served in the same role at the 1946 General Assembly meeting in London.[^2] ## Private practice In 1946 Fortas and Thurman Arnold established the firm Arnold & Fortas.[^5] Paul A. Porter, a former commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission, joined in 1947. The firm took the name Arnold & Porter in 1965, after Fortas's appointment to the Court.[^5] In the 1948 Democratic primary for a U.S. Senate seat from Texas, Johnson's margin was 87 votes.[^5] His opponent, former Texas [[governor]] Coke R. Stevenson, obtained a federal judge's order removing Johnson's name from the general-election ballot while the primary result was contested. The Wikipedia article records serious allegations of corruption in the voting, including 200 Johnson votes cast in alphabetical order.[^5] At Johnson's request, Fortas persuaded Justice [[Hugo Black]] to overturn the order. Johnson went on to win the general election.[^5] During the Red Scare, Fortas represented Owen Lattimore.[^5] In 1950 he often clashed with Senator Joseph McCarthy at hearings of the Tydings Committee and the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee.[^5] Fortas at first opposed creating a presidential commission to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. He changed his position once city, state and federal investigations were getting under way at the same time.[^5] ## Associate Justice of the Supreme Court On July 28, 1965, Johnson nominated Fortas to the seat of [[Arthur Goldberg]].[^6] Goldberg had resigned to become U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations after the death of Adlai Stevenson. Two weeks after the nomination, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a one-day public hearing and recommended Fortas. The Senate confirmed him on August 11, 1965, and he took the judicial oath on October 4, 1965.[^6] The appointment kept the Warren Court's liberal majority intact.[^6] The seat's three previous holders, Goldberg, [[Felix Frankfurter]] and Benjamin Cardozo, were Jewish. For that reason it had come to be known informally as the "Jewish seat."[^6] After joining the Court, Fortas went on advising Johnson. He attended White House staff meetings, advised on judicial nominations and discussed private Supreme Court deliberations with the president.[^6] In 1966 he substantially edited an initial version of Johnson's State of the Union Address.[^6] That year he also informed the FBI and the White House about the Fred B. Black Jr. warrantless bugging case, which was then pending.[^6] In 1968 he published *Concerning Dissent and Civil Disobedience*.[^6] His law clerks included Walter B. Slocombe, later Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, and Martha A. Field, a scholar of constitutional law, family law and bioethics.[^6] ## Later years After his fall, Arnold & Porter, the firm he had founded, rebuffed Fortas.[^7] He founded a new firm, Fortas & Koven, and practiced there successfully until his death in 1982. Carolyn Agger stayed at Arnold & Porter. The Wikipedia article states that Fortas had resigned in order to protect her job there.[^7] He declined an offer to publish his memoirs.[^7] At Fortas & Koven he kept two clients who paid no fee: Pablo Casals and Johnson.[^7] He often visited the former president at his ranch near Stonewall, Texas, until Johnson died in 1973. Lady Bird Johnson asked him to give his papers to Johnson's presidential library. He replied that his correspondence with Johnson had always been kept in strictest confidence.[^7] He sat on the board of directors of Carnegie Hall for many years, including while he was on the Court.[^7] He also served on the board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts from the project's inauguration in 1964. An anonymous donor paid for a portrait of him that was placed at Yale Law School during his lifetime.[^7] When Fortas first appeared before the Court as an advocate, his successor, [[Harry Blackmun]], recalled that their eyes met and Fortas nodded.[^7] Blackmun considered Fortas's attitude toward him remarkable, showing not "an ounce of antagonism or resentment."[^7] ## Notes [^1]: Wikipedia contributors, *Abe Fortas*, lead section (rev. 1378395935, retrieved 2026-10-26) — birth and death dates, education, early posts, 1948 Johnson representation, *Gideon*, 1965 nomination, *Gault* and *Tinker*, 1968 Chief Justice nomination, $20,000 Wolfson acceptance, Justice Department and Mitchell account, return to practice. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abe_Fortas [^2]: Wikipedia contributors, *Abe Fortas*, section "Early career" (retrieved 2026-10-26) — Public Works Administration and Interior posts, Ickes introduction to Johnson, 1943 enlistment and discharge, 1944 reappointment, 1945 and 1946 UN roles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abe_Fortas [^3]: Wikipedia contributors, *Abe Fortas*, section "Early years" (retrieved 2026-10-26) — family, violin, schooling, scholarships, Yale class standing, Douglas. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abe_Fortas [^4]: Wikipedia contributors, *Abe Fortas*, section "Personal life" (retrieved 2026-10-26) — marriage, residence, Meyer Fortes, music, Puerto Rico ties, *Gideon's Trumpet*. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abe_Fortas [^5]: Wikipedia contributors, *Abe Fortas*, section "Private practice" (retrieved 2026-10-26) — firm founding and renaming, 1948 Texas Senate primary, Lattimore defense, Kennedy commission position. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abe_Fortas [^6]: Wikipedia contributors, *Abe Fortas*, section "Associate Justice of the Supreme Court" (retrieved 2026-10-26) — 1965 nomination and Senate dates, "Jewish seat," advice to Johnson, 1966 FBI disclosure, 1968 book, clerks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abe_Fortas [^7]: Wikipedia contributors, *Abe Fortas*, section "Later years" (retrieved 2026-10-26) — Fortas & Koven, Agger, memoirs, Casals and Johnson, papers, boards, portrait, Blackmun recollection. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abe_Fortas