Judicial Filibusters and Abe Fortas

In response to “The Republicans’ Filibuster Lie,” Commentary, May 3:

Missing from David Greenberg’s otherwise excellent analysis of the Republican lie on judicial filibusters is perhaps the ultimate in delicious irony:

Bush nominee Richard Allen Griffin, whose ascent to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals has been blocked by Democrats, is the son of Republican Sen. Robert P. Griffin, the former Michigan lawmaker who in 1968 led the GOP filibuster opposing the nomination of Abe Fortas as chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

What goes around, comes around.

Jim Mallon

San Luis Obispo

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Professor Greenberg claims that “a band of Republicans and Southern Democrats” filibustered Fortas’ nomination as chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court “because of his liberal jurisprudence” and that Fortas was merely guilty of a “petty offense that critics inflated into a disqualifying crime.”

Further, Greenberg claims that filibustering judicial nominees is common.

Here are the facts:

1. President Johnson nominated Abe Fortas to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1965 and the Senate confirmed his nomination without raising any of the ideological or religious issues that Greenberg claims were the real basis of the opposition.

After Justice Fortas was nominated as chief justice in 1968, however, it was revealed that Fortas was on the payroll of jailed financier Louis Wolfson while on the bench. Further, Justice Fortas arranged for his wife to receive the $20,000 payment each year after his death.

Even worse, Fortas lied at his confirmation hearing in the Senate when he was questioned about his relationship with Wolfson, who remained under an ongoing criminal investigation.

2. The Senate has never filibustered a nominee supported by a majority of senators. Period.

Brian McCabe

President

Progress for America

Washington, D.C.