Questions & Answers

THE SUPREME COURT

Senate confirmation hearings ordinarily are fairly perfunctory. Not so last week when Abe Fortas, the President's first Supreme Court appointee, appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee. During a two-hour hearing, he answered questions on a score of subjects, replied to some half-baked accusations.

"Absolutely Inconceivable." Dr. Marjorie Shearon, a vehement anti-Communist from Chevy Chase, Md., appeared as an unsolicited committee witness, declared that Fortas was once a member of the left-wing International Juridical Association, that "he has been significantly connected with Communists and Communist fronts over a considerable period of time," and that "his connections were neither trivial nor casual--and I doubt if they were innocent." Fortas replied that he may have joined the group while he was on the Yale faculty in the 1930s because "joining was easy in those days." But "to the best of my knowledge and belief, I never attended a meeting or took part."

Another volunteer witness, Charles Callas, an unemployed New Yorker who worked for the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee as a junior reearcher in 1952, claimed that while Fortas served as attorney for Owen Lattimore, he had "deliberately withheld" from Senate investigators information about a Communist at the State Department. "That is absolutely inconceivable to me," Fortas said. "I have never, would never, could never, in any way, misrepresent directly or indirectly or by implication anything to a committee of the Congress or to a court--and I hope to anybody else."

Nebraska's Republican Senator Roman Hruska asked Fortas to explain his part in the Walter Jenkins case last year. Fortas recalled that Jenkins, then a top White House aide, had called to say he was in "terrible trouble." Jenkins had, in fact, been arrested on a charge involving a homosexual act, but, Fortas said, Jenkins was so distraught that he couldn't give him a clear story. "1 could not get an answer," said Fortas. "But I was desperately concerned for this man's wife and six children." Fortas and Washington Lawyer Clark Clifford went to the Washington Star, asked the editors to withhold publication of the story "to at least give us time to find out." The editors agreed, and Fortas said last week, "I shall always honor those men." As for his role in temporarily suppressing the news, Fortas said, "I am not ashamed. I am proud of it."

Exaggerated Claims. Fortas was also asked about his views on the running legal controversy over the rights of criminal suspects after arrest (see THE LAW). Fortas declined, of course, to indicate how he might vote as a Supreme Court Justice. But he did say that "adequate opportunity by police" to question suspects "is absolutely essential to law enforcement." Still, the accused must be "brought before a magistrate as soon as possible." Said Fortas: "The great problem is where to draw the line. I could never subscribe to the theory that because a man is poor the scales of justice should be weighed in his favor. But because a man is poor he should not be denied the right to counsel."

Hruska also asked Fortas if his friendship with Lyndon Johnson might in any way affect his performance on the Supreme Court. "I think two things have been vastly exaggerated with respect to me," said Fortas. "First, my ability as a violinist and, second, my relationship with the President. I value highly my friendship with the President, but there is no way that relationship could enter into my judgment on the court. I have no business relationship with the President or any member of his family."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.