Abe Fortas: The Justice Who Walked So Clarence Thomas Could Run [TEASER]

So what's this I hear about you pulling any horns on Fortas?

I thought we were going to confirm him.

Hey everyone, this is Leon from Fiasco and Prologue Projects.

On this episode of 5-4, the hosts are talking about Abe Fortas.

Fortas served as an Associate Justice from 1965 to 1969 and was then nominated by Lyndon B.

Johnson to serve as Chief Justice.

But a coalition opposed desegregation, including Senator Strom Thurmond, managed to block the nomination.

I am familiar with his positions, but the reason I'm asking these questions is to build a record so the Senate itself will know his positions and the public will know his positions.

The majority of the public and maybe a majority of the Senate will take the same position that I do concerning his confirmation.

The opposition to Fortas dug up enough dirt to prompt him to resign in disgrace as a way to avoid impeachment.

But in our modern era, with Supreme Court justices being treated to millions of dollars worth of travel, regularly appearing at partisan events, and brokering real estate deals involving people with business before the court, Fortas' transgressions seem downright tame.

This is 5-4, a podcast about how much the Supreme Court sucks.

Welcome to 5-4, where we dissect and analyze the Supreme Court cases that have threatened our civil liberties, like Elon Musk threatening a lawsuit against someone who criticizes him.

I'm Peter.

I'm here with Rhiannon.

Hey.

Hi, Peter.

Michael, taking the day.

Whenever there's a premium episode, he tries to get out of it.

And sometimes we let him.

We've allowed him one day off.

That's right.

That's right.

No pay.

Yeah.

No pay.

I should mention something a little different for me, too, that listeners might be able to hear right now.

I have a different setup.

I am actually recording not from my home where I usually record.

I am recording due to some noise issues at home.

I am at a wonderful organization called Workers Defense Project here in Austin.

Thank you to WDP and friends here for opening up the office so that I can podcast from here on this Monday afternoon.

But shout out to WDP and listeners, if you're listening to this and kind of hear a difference in how I usually sound, it's because I'm in a different place with a different mic.

It's good to have local connections.

That's right.

If anything ever goes wrong in my home, I will be in a back office at the local Bank of America branch.

Peter's no new friends policy has left him,

left him struggling.

A decade of not talking to anyone has damaged my ability to pivot to a different office space.

I will say that.

Today, we're going to be talking about the disgracing of Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas.

In 1968, Fortas was nominated to be elevated to Chief Justice from his position as Associate Justice.

Not only did the nomination fail, but he was eventually forced to resign in disgrace.

I'm going to tell that story and we're going to talk about what it tells us about the modern confirmation process and the modern discussions of Supreme Court corruption.

ethics, things like that.

Just to give credit where it's due for this discussion, I cribbed quite a bit from the book, The Battle for the Marble Palace, by Michael Babilian.

As such, this is sort of an if-books could kill format.

I have read the book, and Rhiannon is,

you know, learning.

I'm learning.

I'm learning.

I don't know anything about Abe Fortas.

I couldn't have told you before maybe a month ago when Peter brought this up.

I could not have told you that Abe Fortas was eventually forced to resign as a justice from the Supreme Court because of the appearance, at least, of some impropriety, corruption allegations.

So yeah, I'm really interested to learn about what all went down because, you know, what I do know, you say the year 1967, 1968, some shit's going down, you know, like

I do know, I do know some broad things about American history at that time.

And so very interested to hear how this Fortis guy fits into all of that.

Hey, folks, if you want to hear the rest of this episode, you're going to have to subscribe.

There are a few ways to subscribe to and support 54, get our premium episodes, and you can learn about them all at five4pod.com/slash support.

Subscribers get a whole bunch of benefits, including exclusive episodes, members-only events, first dibs on live show tickets, and access to our very lively Slack channel.

So, if that sounds good, head over to five fourpod all spelled out.com/slash support.

Thanks.