Interview with Michael Bobelian

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

Michael Bobelian's Website

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.​

Published in 2019 by Schaffner Press, Battle for the Marble Palace: Abe Fortas, Earl Warren, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and the Forging of the Modern Supreme Court.

Palace is a narrative account of the politicization of the Court during the 1950s and ’60s and the revolution it sparked in the confirmation process. Built upon years of research at more than twenty archives and written in a compelling narrative—what the Dean of UC Davis Law School described as “an absolute ‘must read’ for Supreme Court watchers as well as political junkies, history buffs, and mystery book readers”—Battle for the Marble Palace uncovers the true origins of the messy confirmation fights the nation has endured in recent years.

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.

Michael’s first book, Children of Armenia: A Forgotten Genocide and the Century-Long Struggle for Justice (Simon & Schuster, 2009), is the seminal work on the aftermath of the Armenian Genocide. Endorsed by human rights chronicler, Adam Hochschild, former California Governor George Deukmejian, and leading scholars in the field, Children of Armenia received an “Essential” or “Four-Star” rating from Choice Magazine, the publication’s highest rating.

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.

Steve Murphy, Executive Producer & Host