JFK SUPPORTS NOMINATION TO WISCONSIN DISTRICT COURT
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On November 14, 1963, President John F. Kennedy held what was to be his last news conference in the State Department Auditorium here in the Nation's Capital.
As the news conference was coming to an end, the President was asked this question...
"Mr. President, several months ago you nominated David Rabinovitz* to be a Federal judge in western Wisconsin. Since that time the American Bar Association has opposed this nomination and a majority of lawyers polled by the State Bar Association said that he was unqualified. Do you still support this nomination...or...are you going to withdraw?"
JFK answered...
"No, I am for David Rabinovitz all the way. I know him very well...and the ABA has been very helpful in making the judgment, but I am sure they would agree they are not infallible. Mr. Brandeis was very much opposed. There are a good many judges who have been opposed who have been rather distinguished. And I am for David Rabinovitz."
Thurston Clarke writes in JFK's Last Hundred Days,...
"Kennedy's sixty-fourth press conference was a grim affair. He was mad at Congress for cutting his foreign aid budget."
Clarke goes on to say that while the President's responses seem "cool and reasonable" in the transcript, he appeared "nervous and tense" on the television screen.
*David Rabinovitz (1908-1986) was born in Sheboygan, WI & graduated at Marquette University & University of Wisconsin Law School (1930). DR was a labor attorney representing the UAW & received a recess appointment to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin. DR served from Jan 7 to Oct 3, 1964 but was not confirmed by the US Senate.
SOURCES
"JFK's Last Hundred Days," by Thurston Clarke, The Penguin Press, New York, 2013.
"Kennedy and the Press," by Harold W. Chase and Allen H. Lerman, Thomas Y. Crowell Company, New York, 1965.
JFK's Press Conference
Washington, D.C.
Photo by Abbie Rowe (1961)
JFK Library Image
