Nation: CHIEF CONFIDANT TO CHIEF JUSTICE

We are not final because we are infallible, but we are infallible only because we are final.

—Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson (1941-54).

The third branch of the U.S. Government is intimate, unhurried and arcane, almost totally devoid of pomp or visible drama. Yet the Supreme Court's decisions affect every American, living and unborn. And it is the final, irrevocable judge of every President and Congress. Thus last week, when Lyndon Johnson nominated Associate Justice Abe Fortas to be the 15th Chief Justice of the United States, his selection...

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