University of Virginia Library

Student Legal Forum Hosts
Former Justice Fortas Today

By Mike Gartlan
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

Abe Fortas, former Supreme Court
Justice, will speak at the University
this evening at 8:30 pm. in the
New Chemistry Building Auditorium as a
guest of the Student Legal Forum.

Mr. Fortas is slated to give only a few
remarks to the audience before opening
the floor to questions.

Mr. Fortas' career both as attorney and
justice has been tilled with outstanding legal
contributions as well as severe public criticism.
As a legal counsel, Mr. Fortas was the
court-appointed attorney in Gideon vs.
Wainwright. In the case, the Supreme Court
ruled that all persons accused of serious crimes
must be represented by legal counsel at their
trials.

As a Supreme Court Justice, the Yale Law
School graduate provided the swing votes in
two cases involving required loyalty oaths for
state employees. He also provided the majority
vote in the Ginzbure obscenity case.

In 1968, President Johnson nominated Mr.
Fortas to succeed Earl Warren as Chief Justice.
This nomination was met with severe
Congressional opposition and President
Johnson withdrew the nomination. Mr. Fortas,
however, returned to the bench for the Court's
1968 term.

In May of 1969, Mr. Fortas was named in a
scandal involving a stock manipulation in a Life
Magazine by Pulitzer Prize winner William
Lambert. This article and several others which
followed increased public outrage over the
scandal to such an extent that Mr. Fortas
resigned from the Court one week later.

Mr. Fortas' resignation made him the first
Supreme Court Justice to resign under the
pressure of public opinion.