Battle for the Marble Palace: Abe Fortas, Earl Warren, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and the Forging of the Modern Supreme Court

Michael Bobelian

 Faced with the pending resignation of Chief Justice Earl Warren, the Supreme Court’s longtime kingpin, President Lyndon Johnson named his close advisor Abe Fortas to become Warren’s successor. What Washington pundits believed would be a routine confirmation that would cement LBJ’s legacy instead ignited a fractious war between liberals and conservatives eager to seize control of the judicial body.
   
   ​Battle for the Marble Palace provides a timely portrayal of the major contenders who clashed over this seminal moment in the Court’s history, and details the Machiavellian maneuvers on both sides of the aisle to secure ideologically driven justices for a coming generation.
   
   Bobelian reveals the unprecedented machinations that were perpetrated to capture the Court, including LBJ’s removal of two justices to make room for his favorites, the Senate’s first filibuster against a Court nominee, and Strom Thurmond’s airing of pornographic movies to showcase Fortas’s moral turpitude, while Richard Nixon, in his zeal to win the presidency, stoked the fires of hatred and bigotry to transform the Court into a political weapon.

https://www.michaelbobelian.com/the-prize