The Week

Bet you don’t know who was just elected President of the General Assembly of the United Nations. For that matter, bet you don’t remember the name of the gentleman whom he replaces, or what he did. Hell, we’re willing to bet that he doesn’t remember what he did.

The Capitol drones with talk of dirty movies, bigmoney lecture fees coughed up by old friends and business associates, and moonlight braintrusting at the White House, all in an effort to determine Abe Fortas’ fitness for promotion. But some senators are wondering, have we yet reached the point where a determination need be made? Back in June, Earl Warren wrote the President to say that he would retire from the Supreme Court “effective at your pleasure.” The President wrote back saying that his pleasure would be to “accept your decision to retire at such time as a successor is qualified.” One interpretation of this ambiguous exchange is that Warren will continue to sit on the Court until the Senate approves the nomination of a successor—any successor, not necessarily Fortas—at which time Warren will step down. The countertranslation goes this way: If the Senate rejects Fortas, Warren, with the approval of the President, may withdraw his resignation and stay on indefinitely. In which case he has not really retired. In which case there is no vacancy to be filled. In which case the Fortas proceedings are technically irrelevant.

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Bet you don’t know who was just elected President of the General Assembly of the United Nations. For that matter, bet you don’t remember the name of the gentleman whom he replaces, or what he did. Hell, we’re willing to bet that he doesn’t remember what he did.

The Capitol drones with talk of dirty movies, bigmoney lecture fees coughed up by old friends and business associates, and moonlight braintrusting at the White House, all in an effort to determine Abe Fortas’ fitness for promotion. But some senators are wondering, have we yet reached the point where a determination need be made? Back in June, Earl Warren wrote the President to say that he would retire from the Supreme Court “effective at your pleasure.” The President wrote back saying that his pleasure would be to “accept your decision to retire at such time as a successor is qualified.” One interpretation of this ambiguous exchange is that Warren will continue to sit on the Court until the Senate approves the nomination of a successor—any successor, not necessarily Fortas—at which time Warren will step down. The countertranslation goes this way: If the Senate rejects Fortas, Warren, with the approval of the President, may withdraw his resignation and stay on indefinitely. In which case he has not really retired. In which case there is no vacancy to be filled. In which case the Fortas proceedings are technically irrelevant.