50 years ago this month, something extraordinary happened at the Supreme Court that is almost

completely forgotten today.

A justice resigned in a cloud of scandal.

It had never happened before, and it hasn't happened since.

Yet the resignation of Abe Fortis barely a year after President Lyndon Johnson had tried

to elevate him to the post of Chief Justice was no isolated event.

It was the culmination of a furious political battle over the future of the court.

It may have changed history.

Conservatives in the Senate, including states' rights advocates and die-hard segregationists,

had gone to the mat to block Fortis, seeing his elevation to the post of Chief as a way

to start rolling back years of liberal rulings by the retiring Chief Earl Warren.

It was the first time a Supreme Court nomination triggered a full-scale ideological battle, setting

the stage for confirmation fights that have continued to this day.

It was a battle that only ended when Fortis' foes found embarrassing personal details in

his background, thus setting another precedent.

We'll discuss the fight over Fortis, with the author of a new book on the subject, Battle

for the Marble Palace, on this episode of Buried Treasure.

Because people have got to know whether or not they're President of the Crop, well,

I'm not a Crop.

For all the American people, I did not trade arms for hostage.

My heart and my best intentions still tell me that's true, but the facts and the evidence

tell me it is not.

...