Supreme Scandal: Was The Ball In His Court?

In his new book, presidential historian Michael Beschloss examines scores of remarkable conversations secretly recorded by President Lyndon B. Johnson during 1963 and 1964. Our favorite is an LBJ chat with Abe Fortas, who was named to the Supreme Court in July 1965. Fortas told Johnson he was out dancing with "a beautiful lady in red" who apparently was not his wife. "We're doing good," the sexed-up Fortas told LBJ, "and I'm going to try to do bad before the evening's over." While we don't know if Fortas scored that night, these FBI memos record a dissenting opinion about old Abe's sexuality. The first document details allegations from an "aggressive homosexual" snitch. The second memo records how a top FBI official, on instructions from J.Edgar Hoover, relayed these charges to Fortas himself. (2 pages)