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Reviewed by Mansoor Ahmed for Readers' Favorite
FBI Snitches, Blackmail, and Obscene Ethics at the Supreme Court by Alex Charns is one of those rare books that reads like a legal thriller. Charns, a criminal defense attorney who spent over four decades pursuing secret FBI files through federal courts, reveals how J. Edgar Hoover ran a covert campaign to infiltrate and manipulate the highest court in the United States. The central story involves Justice Abe Fortas, a liberal Supreme Court justice appointed by President Lyndon Johnson, who became both an FBI informer and the target of sexual blackmail. On one hand, Hoover's deputy Cartha DeLoach visited Fortas at his home in 1967 to hand him a memo alleging he had engaged in sexual activity with a young man named George years earlier. On the other hand, Fortas was secretly feeding the FBI confidential information about the court's private deliberations, including details about the Fred Black case involving illegal FBI bugging. Three high-level court employees also served as Bureau informants during the Rosenberg espionage case.
Alex Charns writes with the controlled fury of someone who has spent a lifetime watching institutions protect themselves at the expense of truth. The writing is tight, and the pace pulls you through each chapter with growing disbelief. I found the detail of Hoover's handwriting, "No. DeLoach should see Fortas," at the bottom of the blackmail memo particularly chilling, a four-word note that captures exactly how power operated behind closed doors. The individuals are vivid and damning, from the calculating DeLoach to the compromised Fortas who lied to the Senate under oath. The theme running through every page is institutional corruption. FBI Snitches, Blackmail, and Obscene Ethics at the Supreme Court is an essential read for anyone who believes courts operate above politics.
