Dishonest Abe; how LBJ's favorite Supreme Court justice became the prototype of Washington's valueless lawyers.

• Author: Lichtman, Allan J.
• Position: Abe Fortas, Lyndon B. Johnson

Dishonest Abe

Imagine a man with great abilities and strong convictions, but few, if any, principles. He would lack the internal gyroscope to harmonize his disparate beliefs or guide his personal conduct. Ends would always sanction means, and contradictions could be rationalized or simply ignored.

This is the Abe Fortas that emerges from the pages of Laura Kalman's carefully researched and well-written biography of the public man. (*1) It is precisely this kind of man who would falsely believe that he could simultaneously serve the most powerful private interests and promote the public good.

The Fortas story provides an inside perspective on the transformation of American public life that followed World War II and proves that history can still teach by moral example. Unfortunately, the reader has to work too hard to find lessons that should be readily evident after 400 pages.

Kalman's book is notable for its through research, narrative depth, and intelligent commentary on Forta's personal style and philosophy (or lack thereof). But the big picture is often lost in the detail, a weakness that is made more glaring by the lack of a thematic introduction or a synthetic conclusion. Her book also follows by just two years another lengthy Fortas biography, Bruce Allen Murphy's Fortas: The Rise and Ruin of a Supreme Court Justice, that raverses much of the same territory. Both authors combed through vast archival material, but Kalman had privileged access to Fortas's personal papers. Her book contains new information and analysis, but no startling revelations or striking new interpretations.

The strength of Kalman's book is the depth in which she traces Fortas's odyssey from New Deal whiz kid to fallen Supreme Court justice, expertly revealing his different roles and personae. After a brilliant career at Yale Law School, Fortas quickly rose to the top of the New Deal bureaucracy, becoming undersecretary of Interior at age 31. After World War II he fluidly made the transition to power lawyer and LBJ confidant. But he is largely remembered as the first Supreme Court justice to resign under allegations of improper conduct.

Fortas, Kalman shows, was the preeminent moral relativist. For five years he loyally served Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes. But just after leaving Interior he had "a convenient lapse of memory" when called upon by Congress to corroborate Ickes's charges taht President Truman's appointee for undersecretary of the Navy had...