Abner Mikva

Mikva was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the son of Ida (Fishman) and Henry Abraham Mikva, Jewish immigrants escaping from pogroms in Ukraine.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ACTF56SnaykC&q=%22Henry+Abraham+and+Ida+(Fishman)+Mikva%22&pg=PA246|title=The Jews of Capitol Hill: A Compendium of Jewish Congressional Members|first=Kurt F.|last=Stone|date=December 29, 2010|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=9780810877382|via=Google Books}} Mikva and his parents spoke Yiddish at home.{{cite web| url= http://www.chicagolawbulletin.com/Law-Day/2015/Abner-Mikva-Career-LD2015.aspx| work= Chicago Law Bulletin| date= April 26, 2015| title= Abner Mikva: A public service triple crown| first= Jamie| last= Loo| access-date= March 19, 2016}} During the Great Depression, his father was often unemployed and the family relied on welfare. 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. Afterward, the GI Bill enabled Mikva to attend the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee{{cite news |last=Lewis |first=Neil A. |title=Abner Mikva, Lawmaker, Judge and Mentor to Obama, Dies at 90 |date=July 5, 2016 |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/06/us/abner-mikva-lawmaker-judge-and-mentor-to-obama-dies-at-90.html?smid=fb-share}} 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.

The couple moved to Chicago, Illinois, where Zoe had urged Mikva to enroll at the University of Chicago Law School. 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;{{cite web|url=http://www.illinoiscourts.gov/appellatecourt/judges/Bio_Mikva.asp|title=Mary L. Mikva|website=www.illinoiscourts.gov}} 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.{{cite web| url= http://news.muckety.com/2010/10/06/abner-mikvas-many-connections-to-the-top/28341| website= Muckety.com| date= October 6, 2010| title= Abner Mikva's many connections to the top| first= A. James| last= Memmott| access-date= March 19, 2016| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160324180939/http://news.muckety.com/2010/10/06/abner-mikvas-many-connections-to-the-top/28341| archive-date= March 24, 2016| url-status= dead}}

After graduation, Mikva clerked for Supreme Court Justice Sherman Minton.{{cite web|url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-abner-mikva-dead-20160705-story.html|title=Chicagoan Abner Mikva — lawmaker, judge, presidential adviser — dies at 90|publisher=Chicago Tribune|access-date=July 5, 2016|date=July 5, 2016|author=Trever Jensen}} He also returned to Chicago and began practicing law, at a firm which became Goldberg, Devoe, Shadur & Mikva after he made partner. The firm handles labor, real estate, commercial and civil rights cases, as well as some criminal defense.

File:AbnerJMikva.jpg

Nonetheless, his early interest in Chicago clearly was politics:

One of the stories that is told about my start in politics is that on the way home from law school one night in 1948, I stopped by the ward headquarters in the ward where I lived. There was a street-front, and the name Timothy O'Sullivan, Ward Committeeman, was painted on the front window. I walked in and I said, "I'd like to volunteer to work for [Adlai] Stevenson and [Paul] Douglas." This quintessential Chicago ward committeeman took the cigar out of his mouth and glared at me and said, "Who sent you?" I said, "Nobody sent me." He put the cigar back in his mouth and he said, "We don't want nobody that nobody sent." This was the beginning of my political career in Chicago.[http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people/Mikva/mikva-con2.html Abner Mikva Interview: Conversations with History] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080607124032/http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people/Mikva/mikva-con2.html |date=June 7, 2008 }}; Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley, April 12, 1999.

He spent ten years, 1956 to 1966, in the Illinois House of Representatives.{{cite web|url=http://www.law.uchicago.edu/faculty/mikva|title=Abner Mikva|publisher=University of Chicago Law School|access-date=November 24, 2007|quote=He started his political career in 1956 in the Illinois House of Representatives, where he served five consecutive terms.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071113191036/http://www.law.uchicago.edu/faculty/mikva|archive-date=November 13, 2007|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all}} He was defeated for reelection in 1966, but "reinvented himself" as a community activist, winning election to the United States Congress in 1968.{{cite magazine

|title=Protest works

|first=Daniel Q.

|last=Gillion

|page=24

|magazine=The Atlantic

|date=September 2020}} In the Illinois House, Mikva was part of the "Kosher Nostra", a group of independent, clean Democrats that included future United States Senator and Presidential candidate Paul Simon, future Illinois Comptroller and candidate for Governor Dawn Clark Netsch, and Representative Anthony Scariano.{{cite web | url=https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/95/HR/09500HR1169lv.htm | title=Hr1169 95th General Assembly }} He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1969 to 1973 and 1975 to 1979.

He first represented Illinois's 2nd District, which included the South Side's lakefront wards including Hyde Park, his residence and the University of Chicago.{{cite web|url=http://patch.com/illinois/chicago/abner-mikva-former-u-s-representative-dies|title=Abner Mikva, Former U.S. Representative, Dies|author=Tim Moran|publisher=Patch.com|access-date=July 5, 2016|date=July 5, 2016}} Both parties attempted to redistrict Mikva out of Congress.{{cite web|url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-remap-amendment-campaign-edit-0501-20150430-story.html|title=Power to the people, back for another try|publisher=Chicago Tribune|access-date=July 5, 2016|date=April 30, 2015}} The redistricting for the 1972 elections put Hyde Park in the 1st District for the first time since 1903. This would have pitted Mikva against Democratic incumbent Ralph Metcalfe in a nearly 90% black district; moving to stay in the 2nd District would have matched him against Democratic incumbent Morgan F. Murphy, who had previously represented the 3rd District.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BU1W5JgIhxcC&q=mikva+Ralph+Metcalfe&pg=PA92|title=Young Mr. Obama: Chicago and the Making of the Black President|author=Edward McCelland|date=October 19, 2010|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA |isbn=9781608193844|access-date=July 5, 2016}} Mikva instead moved to the North Shore's 10th District.

After he was defeated by Republican Samuel H. Young in 1972, he ran in the 1974 Democratic wave election and beat Young with 50.9% of the vote; his status was enhanced in the predominantly Republican, suburban district because he was viewed as critical of the Chicago Democratic establishment.{{cite web|url=http://www.dupagedemocrats.com/cms2/abner-mikva-dead-at-90-a-long-post-worth-every-word/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160818130607/http://www.dupagedemocrats.com/cms2/abner-mikva-dead-at-90-a-long-post-worth-every-word/|url-status=dead|archive-date=August 18, 2016|title=ABNER MIKVA DEAD AT 90; a long post worth every word|work=Democratic Party of DuPage County |publisher=DuPage Democrats.com|access-date=July 5, 2016|date=July 4, 2016}} In 1976, he was reelected by 201 votes against Young in a rematch that was one of the most expensive congressional races up to that time. When he defeated Republican State Representative John Porter by 650 votes in 1978, he joked to supporters that he had "won by a landslide." Porter won the seat after Mikva resigned to become a federal judge.

File:Abner Joseph Mikva.jpg]]

Mikva was nominated by President Jimmy Carter on May 29, 1979, to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, to a new seat authorized by 92 Stat. 1629.{{cite web|url=https://igpa.uillinois.edu/ethics/person/abner-j-mikva|title=Abner J. Mikva|publisher=Illinois.edu|access-date=July 5, 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160609203204/http://igpa.uillinois.edu/ethics/person/abner-j-mikva|archive-date=June 9, 2016|df=mdy-all}} Despite opposition from anti-gun control interests that spent over $1 million to oppose his nomination, Mikva was confirmed by the United States Senate on September 25, 1979 and received his commission on September 26, 1979.{{FJC Bio|nid=1385106|inline=yes}}[http://magazine.uchicago.edu/9608/9608Mikva3.html "Dissenting Opinion"], University of Chicago Magazine, August 1996. He served as Chief Judge from 1991 to 1994. His service terminated on September 19, 1994, due to retirement, after which he became White House Counsel to President Bill Clinton.{{cite web|url=http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2016/07/05/Presidential-Medal-of-Freedom-winner-Abner-J-Mikva-dead-at-90/8311467730066/|title=Presidential Medal of Freedom winner Abner J. Mikva dead at 90|publisher=UPI.com|access-date=July 5, 2016|date=July 5, 2016|author=Andrew V. Pistano}}

During his 15 years as judge, including four as Chief Judge, Mikva used his experience in the legislative branch as well as with the conservative Justice Minton to craft his opinions. Mikva's most controversial decisions struck down the Pentagon ban against gay people serving in the U.S. military (overturned on appeal by the circuit sitting en banc, but the ban was ultimately overturned by Executive Order), and - in 1982 - upheld regulation of air bags in automobiles.

In 1992, while serving as Chief Judge on the D.C. Circuit, Mikva appeared in the Kevin Kline comedy Dave as "Supreme Court Justice Abner J. Mikva," in a scene in which he administers the presidential oath of office to the Vice President (played by Ben Kingsley).{{cite web|url=http://news.muckety.com/2010/10/06/abner-mikvas-many-connections-to-the-top/28341|title=Abner Mikva's many connections to the top|author=A. James Memmot|access-date=July 5, 2016|date=July 5, 2016|publisher=Muckety.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160629220517/http://news.muckety.com/2010/10/06/abner-mikvas-many-connections-to-the-top/28341|archive-date=June 29, 2016|url-status=dead}}

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. He then returned to the University of Chicago Law School, serving as the Schwarz Lecturer and the senior director of the [https://web.archive.org/web/20060206093240/http://www.law.uchicago.edu/mandel/ 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.{{cite web|url=https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2014/11/10/president-obama-names-recipients-presidential-medal-freedom|work=whitehouse.gov|title=President Obama Names Recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom|date=November 10, 2014|via=National Archives|access-date=November 25, 2014}} Mikva offered Obama a law clerk position in his judicial office after Obama graduated from Harvard Law School, but Obama declined.{{source?|date=February 2023}} 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.{{cite news |last=Powell |first=Michael |title=Barack Obama: Calm in the Swirl of History |date=June 4, 2008 |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/04/us/politics/04obama.html}} 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."

Mikva served as a mediator through JAMS, and was co-chairman of the Constitution Project's bipartisan Constitutional Amendments Committee.{{cite web|url=http://www.constitutionproject.org/about-us/the-constitutional-amendments-committee/|title=The Constitutional Amendments Committee|date=August 16, 2012|publisher=Constitution Project.org|access-date=July 5, 2016}} In November 2004, Mikva was an international election monitor of Ukraine's contested presidential election.{{cite news| url= https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1557577.html | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160505054430/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1557577.html | url-status= dead | archive-date= May 5, 2016 |title=Ukraine election shenanigans an eye-opener for Mikva| work=Chicago Sun-Times| date= November 29, 2004 | first= Mark |last= Brown|access-date= March 19, 2016}} In July 2006, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich named Mikva chair of the Illinois Human Rights Commission.{{cite web|url=http://www3.illinois.gov/PressReleases/ShowPressRelease.cfm?SubjectID=1&RecNum=5111|title=Gov. Blagojevich appoints Judge Abner Mikva Chairman of the Illinois Human Rights Commission|date=July 26, 2006|access-date=July 5, 2016}} In 2009, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn requested that Mikva lead a commission investigating the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign for admitting applicants (many of whom were not very well qualified) whose relatives or backers had connections to and had donated money to Illinois state lawmakers.

Mikva and his wife Zoe started the Mikva Challenge in 1997.{{Cite web|url=https://mikvachallenge.org/about-us/history/|title = History| date=April 12, 2019 }} Mikva Challenge is a non-profit, non-partisan organization whose mission is to develop youth to be informed, empowered, and active citizens and community leaders who will promote a just and equitable society.{{Cite web|url=https://mikvachallenge.org/about-us/|title=About Us|date=April 12, 2019 }} Mikva Challenge has chapters in Chicago, Illinois, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, California, and partner sites spanning the country including Cobb County, Georgia, Wilmington, Delaware, Rochester, New York, New York City, New York, Louisville, Kentucky, Riverside, California, New Hampshire, Detroit, Michigan, and Macomb County, Michigan, Madison, Wisconsin, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.{{cite web |url=https://mikvachallenge.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/2020-Annual-Report.pdf |title=2020 Annual Report // Youth Reshaping Democracy |website=mikvachallenge.org |access-date=January 31, 2022}} The organization helps youth to expand their political desire by working as election judges, volunteering on campaigns, advising city officials, and creating local activism projects to improve their schools and communities.{{cite web |url=http://www.mikvachallenge.org/about/mission-vision/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141108000158/http://www.mikvachallenge.org/about/mission-vision |archive-date=November 8, 2014 |title=Mikva Challenge Mission & Vision - Mikva Challenge}} Their motto is "Democracy is a Verb!" As of 2020, Mikva Challenge reaches 100,000 youth annually

in programs in over 3,000 schools across the country.

Mikva died under hospice care in Chicago, Illinois, from complications of bladder cancer on July 4, 2016, aged 90.{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/abner-mikva-liberal-titan-of-law-and-politics-dies-at-90/2016/07/05/3f0588da-42ba-11e6-88d0-6adee48be8bc_story.html|title=Abner Mikva, liberal titan of law and politics, dies at 90|newspaper=The Washington Post.com|access-date=July 5, 2016|date=July 5, 2016|author=Emily Langer}} He was also suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at the time of his death.{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/06/us/abner-mikva-lawmaker-judge-and-mentor-to-obama-dies-at-90.html?_r=0|title=Abner Mikva, Lawmaker, Judge and Mentor to Obama, Dies at 90|work=The New York Times|access-date=July 5, 2016|date=July 5, 2016|author=Neil A. Lewis}}

Mikva's congressional and judicial papers are archived at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, Illinois.[http://www.fjc.gov/servlet/nGetMan?jid=1638 Finding aid, Federal Judicial Center, Adam Mikva] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120118003225/http://www.fjc.gov/servlet/nGetMan?jid=1638 |date=January 18, 2012 }}, FJC.gov In 1998, Mikva received the Chicago History Museum's "Making History Award" for Distinction in Public Service.{{cite web|url=http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/abner-mikva-dead-at-90/|title=Abner Mikva, the original 'nobody nobody sent,' dead at 90|publisher=Chicago Sun-Times|access-date=July 5, 2016|date=July 5, 2016|author=Neil Steinberg}} 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.{{cite news|last1=Bookwalter|first1=Genevieve|title=Evanston post office renamed in honor of Abner Mikva|url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/evanston/news/ct-evr-evanston-post-office-renamed-for-mikva-tl-0316-20170313-story.html|access-date=7 April 2017|work=chicagotribune.com|date=13 March 2017}}

• List of Jewish American jurists
• List of Jewish members of the United States Congress
• List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 3)

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{Commons category}}

• [http://www.mikvachallenge.org Mikva Challenge]
• {{Biographical Directory of Congress|M000703}} Retrieved on 2009-02-26
• {{FJC Bio|1638|nid=1385106|name=Abner Joseph Mikva}}
• {{C-SPAN|2003}}
• {{cite news| url= https://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/26/us/politics/26mikva.html| title= In a Mentor, Kagan's Critics See Liberal Agenda| first= John| last= Schwartz| work= The New York Times| date= June 25, 2010| access-date= March 19, 2016}}

{{s-start}}

{{s-par|us-hs}}

{{s-bef|before=Barratt O'Hara}}

{{s-ttl|title=Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Illinois's 2nd congressional district|years=1969–1973}}

{{s-aft|after=Morgan F. Murphy}}

{{s-bef|before=Samuel H. Young}}

{{s-ttl|title=Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
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{{s-legal}}

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{{s-ttl|title=White House Counsel|years=1994–1995}}

{{s-aft|after=Jack Quinn}}

{{s-end}}

{{White House Counsels}}

{{USCongRep-start|congresses= 91st–92nd & 94th–96th United States Congresses |state=Illinois}}

{{USCongRep/IL/91}}

{{USCongRep/IL/92}}

{{USCongRep/IL/94}}

{{USCongRep/IL/95}}

{{USCongRep/IL/96}}

{{USCongRep-end}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mikva, Abner Joseph}}

Category:1926 births

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Category:American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent

Category:Deaths from cancer in Illinois

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Category:Deaths from bladder cancer in the United States

Category:Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Illinois

Category:Jewish members of the United States House of Representatives

Category:Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit

Category:Law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States

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Category:Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law faculty

Category:Politicians from Chicago

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Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients

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Category:20th-century members of the United States House of Representatives