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

by Michael Bobelian

1968 was a particularly tumultuous year in American history. The escalating war in Vietnam, the riots during the Democratic Convention, and the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy left a scar on the national consciousness. But one great battle that took place during this time is barely recalled. The nomination of Abe Fortas for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court launched an all-out cultural war that would determine the course of major court cases for years to come. Award-winning judicial journalist and Supreme Court reporter Michael Bobelian brings us right into the halls where this fierce battle raged, pitting Lyndon Johnson and the Democratic Party against Richard Nixon and the GOP in a fight that ended in the defamation of Fortas, the first Jew ever nominated for the highest judicial office. Written in vivid detail, the narrative unfolds in a series of dramatic vignettes, from the landmark ruling of Brown vs. Board of Education to the chaos on the floor of the Democratic Convention. Readers are given a behind the scenes look at the camaraderie among the retiring Chief Justice Earl Warren, Lyndon Johnson, and Fortas―and will witness, with them, the rise of Richard Nixon as the fate of the liberal court is decided.

Genres: Law, Nonfiction, Politics

480 pages, Hardcover

Published May 15, 2019

About the author

Michael Bobelian is an award-winning author, lawyer, and journalist whose work has covered issues ranging from legal affairs to corporate wrongdoing to human rights.

Upon graduating from the University of Michigan’s Business and Law Schools, Michael worked at a Wall Street law firm before earning a Master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

As a contributing writer at Forbes.com, Michael currently covers the Supreme Court, Wall Street reform, white collar crime, regulatory agencies, and high-profile trials. He has also written for the Los Angeles Times, Washington Monthly, California Lawyer Magazine, Reuters, Legal Affairs Magazine, and the New York Law Journal, where he worked as a staff reporter.

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly researched and carefully written, this book is a must read to understand the turmoil and dis functionality in Court appointments since the end of the Johnson administration. Read this book to learn the tragedy of Abe Fortas and the high level politics of Court appointments. This book is relevant and timely, even as former Attorney General Eric Holder is calling for term limits for justices. This book helps to understand the history and context that define the current debate. Thank you to Michael Bobelian for his outstanding work in this important book.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Battle For The Marble Palace is a masterpiece of US socio-political history. Michael Bobelian impressed me and endeared himself to me with his first book Children Of Armenia and in this grander endeavor he employs the same narrative structure that makes the book read almost like a novel. Bobelian has an uncanny ability in both of his books to give the reader hope for a different ending, despite reading (meticulously researched) history.
The chapters are arranged in such a way that the narrative builds intrigue and tension with references to contemporary events that are not only helpful (to me, a reader who wasn't alive for the Eisenhower, Johnson, or Nixon administrations) but also enrich the narrative and the general thesis of the book: these events came to dictate how our judicial, legislative, and executive branches of government not just interact with each other, but how they function in their own rights.
Bobelian is nimble with his prose, uses humor and parallels to construct a three dimensional environment that allows the reader to fully understand how and why each signifying event in the Supreme Court's history (between Eisenhower and Nixon) came to happen. He builds suspense and moves the story in real time.
This is one of the most difficult books I've read in some time and I feel enriched as a person for it. I want to engage more with US history and follow Bobelian's journalism more closely.
BONUS: This book is so painstakingly researched that there are over 120 pages of references, bibliography, and notes!
The sole flaw I can find in the piece is that the latter 70 pages could have used one more go with a copy editor.

[Don Heiman · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The Battle for the Marble Palace” by author Michael Bobelian was published by Schaffer Press in 2019. Bobelian’s book gives his readers an in-depth understanding how Abe Fortas, Earl Warren, Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon foraged today’s modern Supreme Court. The political pressures that influence today’s (2019) U.S. Supreme Court Associate and Chief Justice confirmations are directly influenced by events and techniques that occurred in the late 1960’s and early ‘70s. Bobelian’s research is based on over 10,000 reference documents and his analysis of these documents reflects an amazing understanding of how American social politics influence the making and interpretation of law in the United States. (P)

[Adam Hare · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bobelian makes a mistake on the second page of his preface and three more times in the body of his text - he invites comparisons to Robert Caro.

Bobelian is clearly inspired by Caro, referencing him glowingly and attempting to emulate some of his signature features, including inserting miniature biographies of key players when they enter the stage and taking time to paint the physical characteristics of rooms. However, as a writer, he’s not there. Although he largely abandons this in later chapters, Bobelian often resorts to distractingly dramatic language including exclamation marks. His historical asides are not chronological and occasionally confusing; at times their relevance to the central narrative is less than clear. If he wanted to simply tell the story of the failed elevation of Fortas, I think he could’ve done so in under 150 pages (compared to almost 350 in my edition). The bios provide some interesting context but fail to make you feel like you know the person and how they will respond in any situation, which Caro so masterfully does.

There are also a number of factual errors I caught (such as saying Thurmond is the only Senator to win an election by a write-in vote, although Lisa Murkowski did so well before this book was published). Also, as something of a law nerd myself, I’d never heard the term “Marble Palace” and found its frequent usage a little distracting.

On the other hand, this book did answer the question I hoped it would: why did LBJ fail so horribly to preserve his legacy on the Supreme Court? While I wish it had focused a bit more on LBJ, and especially the collapse of his relationship with Richard Russell, Bobelian confirmed that the issue was not LBJ’s failure to see the power of the Court. It was more due to LBJ’s limited power towards the end of his term and unexpected resistance that resulted in the first filibuster on a SCOTUS nominee in history. I’m reminded once again that, without Vietnam, LBJ may have been considered a second FDR by progressives.

The characters and stories Bobelian tells are quite interesting, and I’d say he largely does so competently. Especially the second half of the book is readable, clear prose, if not especially noteworthy in my opinion. This book is filling a valuable gap in two parallel narratives (Caro’s portrayal of LBJ and modern narratives around Fortas/contentious SCOTUS appointees) and if that interests you, I’d say it’s worth a read! At least until Caro publishes Volume V of The Years of Lyndon Johnson.