Lyndon Johnson Administrations - Johnson and the Judiciary
Johnson and the Judiciary
When Johnson assumed the presidency on November 22, 1963, the nine members of the Supreme Court under the leadership of Chief Justice Earl Warrren, a Republican, were generally thought of as liberals.
Johnson made two appointments to the High Court. These were Abe Fortas in 1965, and Thurgood Marshall in 1967. Fortas possessed a fine mind and would certainly have made a good justice. Unfortunately, he came under fire because of allegations that he had engaged in inappropriate financial dealings. Eventually in 1969 the pressure became so great that he resigned from the Court.
Marshall had long been one of the leading attorneys for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). It was Marshall who had argued Brown v. Topeka Board of Education back in 1954. (The case that ruled school segregation unconstitutional.) Marshall was the first African American to be...
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