Wives, Children... Husbands: Supporting Roles CLARE CUSHMAN* In 1965, Hugo L. Black asked his wife, Elizabeth, to host a dinner party. The purpose: to help him persuade Carolyn Agger, wife of Washington attorney Abe Fortas, to allow her husband to accept President Lyndon B. Johnson’s offer of a seat on the Supreme Court. A tax lawyer at the same firm as Fortas, Agger was displeased that the move would mean a big cut in his salary; she thought he should spend a few more years in his lucrative private practice before becoming a judge. After all, he was only fifty-five. Elizabeth Black described the tense occasion in a diary entry: We had invited Carol and Abe Fortas for dinner in answer to an SOS by [Justice] Bill Douglas, saying they were having a serious crisis about Abe’s going on the Court. Carol told me they had several big things going that now had to be given up [improvements to their house in Georgetown], that they can’t live on the small Court salary and may have to give up their new home. Later Hugo talked to Carol in that dear straightforward way of his. I was almost in tears at the things he was saying and it did have a great soften ing effect on Carol, I could tell. He told how he had deliberately chosen public service; how invaluable his first wife’s role was in his work; how unproductive he was in the years when he was alone; and, bless him, how much he was able to do after he married me. How a man needs a wife, in short. Carol asked indignantly if he was suggesting that she give up her law practice which was her life, and Hugo said “Certainly not.” And as to whether Abe would have to sit out of some cases because of Carol’s involvement, they were only a minute percent of cases. I do believe Hugo’s advice helped. They stayed until after midnight.' Fortas relented to the pressure and let Johnson nominate him a few months later. WIVES, CHILDREN ... HUSBANDS 265 Agger continued her legal career as a soughtafter tax law specialist and became the fam ily’s principal breadwinner. She cut a colorful figure in Washington, driving around in her 1953 Rolls Royce and smoking cigars. But she refused to speak to President Johnson, a close friend, for months after her husband’s appoint ment. Her “life had been ruined,”2 she said. Being the wife or, since 1981, husband of a Justice has always entailed some sacrifice and certain constraints. So has being the child of a Justice. While family members may have enjoyedprivilegedlives anda high social status in the nation’s capital, that is not the whole story. A historic examination of the changing role ofthe Supreme Courtspouse and firsthand anecdotes by Justices’ children help illuminate the important but often thankless supporting role that family members have played in the development of the Supreme Court. In the early decades of the Court, the Justices boarded together during the Supreme Court Term while their wives and children re mained in their hometowns. These separations were exacerbated by the requirements of rid ing circuit, and the Justices often struggled to balance work duties with taking care of their families. In the 1790s, Hannah Iredell suffered more than most Supreme Court wives dur ing her husband’s absences because she was painfully shy. As long as the Iredells remained intheircozy hometown ofEdenton, North Car olina, where Hannah was surrounded by fam ily and old friends, her shyness was not a prob lem. Unlike most Justices, however, James Iredell moved his family to the capital after his appointment to the Court in 1790, probably for two reasons. First, the climate was thought to be healthier inNew York and Philadelphiathan in Edenton, where malariawas endemic. In ad dition, Iredell most likely believed the rumors that Congress would soon abolish the system ofcircuit riding, in which case he would never have to leave Hannah alone ifthey lived in the capital. Circuit riding, of course, was not abol ished, and Hannah was on her own in the capital for long months...