12 Friday, March 13, 1981

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

The Court Year's' by William 0. Douglas a Revealing History

"The Court Years" by
William 0. Douglas (Ran-
dom House) is more than an
autobiography. It is a his-
tory of the U.S. Supreme
Court in the 36 years the
late Supreme Court justice
served in the highest court
in the land. Based on his ex-
periences, it is a review of
many of the most important
cases that were tackled by
the court.
They are Justice Douglas'
personal experiences and
are commentaries on the
roles of-the judges who
served with him.
The topics discussed by
Justice Douglas are as var-
ied as the occurrences in the
decades of his services. He
comments for example on
judges being advisers to
Presidents and he refers to
Louis D. Brandeis and Felix
Frankfurter as having pro-
vided such advice. He per-
sonally opposed such roles.
He went into detail
about the propogal for his
impeachment by the then
Congressman Gerald
Ford and he discusses the
case of Abe Fortas.
In the book, the late Jus-
tice defends Fortas, follow-
ing his 1966 nomination for
Chief Justice of the Sup-
reme Court. Following
President Johnson's with-
drawal of the nomination, it
was Douglas who attempted
to persuade Fortas not to re-
sign from the Court. (Fortas
had been considering resig-
nation for a number of rea-
sons besides the Senate in-
vestigation which prompted
the withdrawl.)
Like most of his autobiog-
raphy, which covers the
U.S. judicial history in the
36 years he served on the
high court, Douglas' full ac-
count of the Fortas case is
an invaluable chapter de-
fining judicial respon-
sibilities as well as the right
of judges to lecture even
when fees are involved.
The controversy sur-
rounding Fortas' nomina-
tion, according to Douglas,
was that during Johnson's
tenure in the White House,
Fortas, while a member of
the court, also served as an
adviser to the President.
"He (Fortas) would
have made -an excellent
Chief Justice," Douglas
states. - "The points
against him made at the
hearings before the Se-
nate Judiciary Commit-
tee were petty and irrele-
vant . . In the case of
Fortas, there were no in-
stances in which his con-
sultations with LBJ in
any way implicated cases
coming to the Court.
Moreover, there never
has been a complete 'sep-
aration' of executive and
judicial functions."
Another one of the

ABE FORTAS

charges leveled again"St
Fortas was that he had re-
ceived money for lecturing
at American University.
Douglas defends his associ-
ate with the following:
In the early years quite a
few Justices were part-time
lecturers on law faculties.
In my time there was hardly
a single Justice who did not
receive some fee for some
lecture. I traveled exten-
sively around the world,
financing my own way.
Those were expensive
trips and I recouped the
costs through writing books
and giving lectures. My
travel and other books
amounted to over 30.
"I gave formal lectures,
such as the Edge Lectures at
Princeton (America Chal-
lenged') and the Stokes Lec-
tures at New York Univer-
sity (`Towards a Global
Federalism'). I also spoke on
college campuses to stu-
dents and adults alike on a
variety of topics — 'Russia
Today,' Red China v. India,'
`Communism in Southeast
Asia,' Points of Rebellion'
(dealing with the mounting
internal tensions), 'The
Supreme Court in Ameri-
can History,' Latin
America Today,' Israel and
the Democratic Front,' and
others ...
"What blocked Fortas
in 1968 had blocked John
Rutledge in 1795. He was
named Chief Justice by
President Washington
while Congress was in
recess. Rutledge made a
speech critizing the Jay
Treaty, by which
England and the United
States had agreed to es-
tablish limited trade rela-
tions. The Federalists
were riled and voted him
.down, 10 to 14, when the
Senate convened. That
vote, like the filibuster
against Fortas, had noth-
ing to do with Rutledge's
fitness for office. He had
become a symbol of what
the majority disliked.
"Fortas was not disliked
personally, but he was the
symbol of the Court, which
had encountered severe
criticism because of its
libertarian philosophy, and
more important, he was
rated as a crony of the dis-
credited Lyndon Johnson.
"Arthur Goldberg's res-
ignation from the Court in

1965 set a strange series of
events in motion which is
worth summarizing here: it
created a vacancy that
Johnson filled by appoint-
ing Fortas. Then, when
Warren retired as Chief
Justice, in 1969, at the end
of Johnson's term, LBJ
named Fortas to succeed
him.
"Because Fortas had been
Johnson's attorney and
close friend prior to coming
onto the Court, the inquiry
in the Senate on his confir-
mation probed deeply into
whether Fortas had contin-
ued to give Johnson advice
while he was an Associate
Justice. By that time
Johnson himself had
created a credibility gap of
vast proportions; as a result,
much of the antagonism
against Fortas was merely a
reflection against Johnson.
"In any event, Johnson
withdrew the Fortas nomi-
nation as Chief Justice and
shortly thereafter Fortas
resigned from the Court al-
together."
In a later chapter,
Douglas describes his
unsuccessful attempt at
persuading Fortas to re-
main on the Court and
the subsequent effort by
the Nixon White House to
impeach him (Douglas).
"I sat up with him (For-
tas) two nights, serving as a
sounding board. I asked him
if he had tried to get LBJ to
do something to help (Louis

E.) Wolfson. His reply was
an emphatic negative. I
asked him if he had directly
or indirectly contacted
Manny Cohen, chairman of
the SEC, or any other SEC
official to aid Wolfson. He
said he had not. He appar-
ently had held Wolfson's
hand, so to speak, but had
never undertaken to give
legal advice or acted as
counsel after coming on the
Court.

"I urged Abe not to resign,
though parts of the press
were demanding it. At first
Abe agreed with me, but he
quickly changed. I saw him
the next night and he was
then resolved to resign.
"My son Bill was with me
and he too pleaded with Abe
not to resign. 'Blood will
taste good to this gang. And
having tasted it, they will
want more,' my son said. I
told Abe that if he decided to
resign, to do so on his own
timetable, not on someone
else's.
"Abe Fortas" acceptance
of a salary from the Wolfson
Foundation had nothing to
do with his performance of
his judicial duties as a
member of the Court. He
meticulously refrained from
sitting on or voting in any
cases with Wolfson connec-
tions. Nevertheless, it was a
juicy morsel that was seized
upon in order to denounce
the Justice for unethical
conduct.

"As I have discussed ear-
lied I knew little of
Carswell at the time, but I
did know Haynsworth
slightly and I thought he
would have been a good ap-
pointment to the Court. •
While Carswell's nomina-
tion was peihding, House 4
Minority Leader Gerald R.
Ford said, 'if the Senate
does not confirm Carswell,
we'll impeach Douglas.'
That threat cost Carswell
five votes in the Senat'
he lost by a vote of 51 t6

WILLIAM DOUGLAS

"The problem was that
Fortas had never wanted
to be a Justice and had
left his law practice most
reluctantly. I think he
had regretted it almost
every day on the Court.
So the urge to stay was
not strong to begin with,
and he quickly magnified
the gravity of the charges
against him . . .

"Having disposed of For-
tas, Nixon turned loose on
me, and there were indica-
tions that Brennan would
be next. The impeacement
effort against me was the
direct result of the failure of
the Senate to confirm Cle-
ment Haynsworth and Har-
rold Carswell, whom Nixon
had named to take the place
of Fortas.

"The ease with which
Fortas had been dispatched
quickened the assault on
me, which crystallized after
Haynsworth and Carswell
failed to be confirmed. Oil -
April 11, 1970, (Vice
President Spiro) Agnew
said the Administration
should 'take a good look' at
what I had been saying and
thinking. 'At the present
time all I'm advocating is
that Justice Douglas' record
be thoroughly examined,
including his writings and
his verbal opinions, to see
whether they are compati-
ble with the position he
holds.

The impeachment effort
ultimately failed, and 4
Douglas continued to serve
on the U.S. Supreme Court.

He suffered a stroke late
in 1974, and retired from 4
the Court on Nov. 12, 1975.
He died Jan. 19, 1980.

Israeli Arabs' Swing to the Religious Right 41
Is Being Misused by Palestinian Supporters

By HUGH ORGEL

TEL AVIV (JTA) — A
large group of Israeli Arabs,
organized along religious
lines for action against Is-
rael, has been uncovered.
Security officials have not
disclosed any details about
this group, other than a
brief announcement that it
has been uncovered. How-
ever, on the basis of what is
known but so far barred
from publication, officials
are seriously concerned by
the scope and structure of
the gang and the large
quantities of arms, mainly
stolen from the army, found
in its possession.
Four minor members of
the gang, believed to
number several dozen, have
already been tried by a mili-
tary court in Lod and sen-
tenced to prison terms of
12-20 months. They were
charged with membership
in the group. Other mem-
bers will be brought to trial
shortly. All hearings are
being held behind closed
doors.
The gang is believed to
have obtained its arms, in-
cluding pistols, grenades,

Uzzi submachineguns and
explosives mainly through
what has become known as
the "Jaffa Bombers Group"
— Jews and Arabs in Jaffa
who have bombed a number
of cars in the area recently.
They are described as an
underworld "hit group" and
many are now on trial.
A number of the young
Israeli Arabs from vil-
lages in - the "Little
Triangle" on the pre-1967
border not far from Tel
Aviv have criminal re-
cords. They are former
drug addicts who re-
pented and turned to
religion, possibly under
the influence of the
Ayatollah Ruhallah
Khomeini in Iran. They
were guided by religious
leaders, including mem-
bers of the outlawed Mos-
lem Brotherhood who
use religion as a weapon
in their fight against any
Western influence, in-
cluding Zionism.
Sheikh Farid Wajdi
Tabari, the Kadi (religious
judge) of Jaffa and
Jerusalem who is an out-
spoken proponent of
Jewish-Moslem coopera-
tion, says that the Moslem
religious leadership has
confined itself almost
entirely to legal religious
matters in the courts and
that a social religious lead-
ership almost does not exist.
Consequently, certain reli-
gious leaders have misused
religion to serve certain

political aims among young
Arabs who have been neg-
lected, he said.
He said in a radio inter-
view: "We have heard a lot
lately about the confisca-
tion of Arab land, about the
lack of possibilities for
young Arabs to take part in
government affairs, and
about under-representation
in the Knesset. According to
our numbers, we should
have at least 15 Arabs in the
Knesset (as against only
three or four). We should
have at least one Arab on
the Supreme Court and our
education system has come
in for severe criticism."
Binyamin Gur-Arye,
Premier Menahem Begin's
Arab affairs adviser, re-
sponded by saying that a
disproportionate share of
the educational budget
went to the Arab sector. But
he added that much needs to
be done to raise the Arab
community from the dis-
mally low educational level
of 1948 to approach that of
the Jewish sector.
He said he was aware
for the past two years of
the "Moslem fundamen-
talist revival" but it was
difficult to take measures
under a democracy.
Villagers in the Israeli
Arab villages of Umn El-
Fakham and Baka Al-
Garbiya, where most of the
arrests were made, are split
in their reactions. Some of
them welcome the return of
their prodigal sons from

.

crime to religion and to an
ultra-strict form of puritan-
ical religious life at that.
They deny that it has been
misused for political pur-
poses.

Others say that the lack
of opportunities for young
Arabs to progress at the rate
of their Jewish fellow-
Israelis makes it almost in-
evitable that they will turn
either to the Israel Com-
munist Party, made up
mainly of Arabs, though
largely led by Jews, or to
religious fundamentalism
with its dangers of develop-
ing into an anti-Israeli
movement — especially in
view of the spread of
Khomeinism in the Arab
and Moslem world.

UAHC Offers
`Masada' Series

I

NEW YORK — A
hour, 11-minute video . -
sette version of "Masada,"
the TV mini-series recount- 4
ing the heroic Jewish de-
fense of the Judean moun- 4
taro fortress during the re-
bellion against Rome, is
now available through the
Union of American Hebrew
Congregations.
"Masada," filmed almost
entirely in Israel, stars
Peter O'Toole, Peter
Strauss, Anthony Quayle
and Joseph Wiseman. It will
be shown in an eight-hour
series over"the ABC televi-
sion network on the eve-
nings of April 5-8.

