The Fortas Impasse

The nomination of Abe Fortas as Chief Justice of the United States has been bottled up in the Senate Judiciary Committee ever since President Johnson sent the nomination to the Senate on June 26. Last week, as Congress reconvened after the conventions, the committee was once again scheduled to consider his appointment. This time, its members did not even field a quorum to review the issue.

Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield acknowledged that "opposition has hardened and may well have increased" during the recess. Even so, the President argued angrily at a news conference that both the Judiciary Committee and the Senate can still produce majorities to report out and approve the Fortas nomination, if a filibuster can be averted.

In fact, at week's end there was every prospect of a filibuster--if the nomination should reach the Senate floor. Actually, Fortas' foes on the committee itself, including its chairman, Mississippi Democrat James O. Eastland, may well keep the nomination tied up in committee unless most of the Senators favoring it can finally be mustered to bring the matter to a vote. Should there be a floor fight, there is little likelihood that enough Senators would show up during this campaign month to provide the necessary two-thirds vote to cut off debate.

Minority Leader Everett M. Dirksen held to his promise to vote both for cloture and for the Fortas appointment, but his troops remained recalcitrant, still bitter that he had agreed with the President to support Fortas before consulting them. L.B.J., aware that a refusal on Fortas would also block his nomination of Old Friend Homer Thornberry to Fortas' putatively vacant Associate Justice seat, could only whistle down the wind. "We shouldn't allow a little group to prevent the majority from expressing its viewpoint," he said. That, so far, is precisely what has happened.

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