Abner Mikva
Abner Joseph Mikva (January 21, 1926 – July 4, 2016) was an American politician, federal judge, and legal scholar. He was a member of the Democratic Party. After serving in the Illinois House of Representatives, Mikva ran for congress in 1966 but lost the primary to incumbent congressman Barrett O'Hara. In 1968, Mikva defeated O'Hara. Mikva served in the United States House of Representatives representing Illinois's 2nd congressional district (1969–1973) and 10th congressional district (1975–1979). He was appointed as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit by President Jimmy Carter, serving from 1979 to 1994. He served as the White House Counsel from 1994 to 1995 during Bill Clinton's presidency. He was one of the few people in modern times to serve in the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the Federal government.
Abner Mikva
Seat established
Samuel H. Young (redistricting)
In his later career, Mikva taught at the University of Chicago Law School, the Georgetown University Law Center and the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law. He mentored future President of the United States Barack Obama and future United States Attorney General Merrick Garland (who also succeeded him on the D.C. Circuit) during their early years in law. In 2014, Obama honored Mikva with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Early life and family[edit]
Mikva was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the son of Ida (Fishman) and Henry Abraham Mikva, Jewish immigrants escaping from pogroms in Ukraine.[1] Mikva and his parents spoke Yiddish at home.[2] During the Great Depression, his father was often unemployed and the family relied on welfare.[2] Abner attended local public schools. During World War II, he enlisted and was trained in the United States Army Air Corps, but the war ended the day before he was due to be deployed.[2] Afterward, the GI Bill enabled Mikva to attend the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee[3] before transferring to Washington University in St. Louis, where he met his future wife, Zorita Rose (Zoe) Wise. Both graduated in 1948 and soon married.[2]
The couple moved to Chicago, Illinois, where Zoe had urged Mikva to enroll at the University of Chicago Law School.[2] He graduated in 1951 with a Juris Doctor, having served as editor-in-chief of the University of Chicago Law Review. The couple eventually had three daughters: Mary Lane (b. 1953), an Illinois Appellate Court judge in Chicago;[4] Laurie, who teaches at Northwestern University and is on the board of directors of the Legal Services Corporation; and Rachel, a rabbi and professor who teaches at the Chicago Theological Seminary.[5]
Post-judicial career[edit]
Mikva taught law at Northwestern University and was White House Counsel under President Bill Clinton from 1994 to 1995, finding himself the oldest member of the White House team, and eventually resigning due to exhaustion.[2] He then returned to the University of Chicago Law School, serving as the Schwarz Lecturer and the senior director of the Mandel Legal Aid Clinic. While at the University, Mikva came to better know future president Barack Obama, whom he mentored and supported politically. Obama awarded Mikva the Presidential Medal of Freedom on November 24, 2014.[20] Mikva offered Obama a law clerk position in his judicial office after Obama graduated from Harvard Law School, but Obama declined. Future Obama appointee and United States Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan did serve as one of Mikva's law clerks and was then a professor at the University of Chicago Law School.[21] Mikva also encouraged Obama to listen to preachers to understand public speaking, "listen[ing] to patterns of speech, how to take people up the ladders. It's almost a Baptist tradition to make someone faint, and, by God, he's doing it now."[21]
Death[edit]
Mikva died under hospice care in Chicago, Illinois, from complications of bladder cancer on July 4, 2016, aged 90.[29] He was also suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at the time of his death.[30]
Legacy and awards[edit]
Mikva's congressional and judicial papers are archived at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, Illinois.[31] In 1998, Mikva received the Chicago History Museum's "Making History Award" for Distinction in Public Service.[32] In 2016, Congress renamed the United States Post Office in downtown Evanston, Illinois, after Mikva, who had lived in Evanston and represented it as a congressional representative.[33]