Abner Mikva, a liberal fixture in Chicago politics who maintained posts in all three branches of government, died July 4. He was 90.
Mikva made a number of contributions in the advancements of LGBT rights, especially in his work as legislator and in the judiciary, often long before those contributions reflected popular opinion.
"No matter how far we go in life, we owe a profound debt of gratitude to those who gave us those first, firm pushes at the start," wrote President Barack Obama, who counted Mikva among his members, in a July 5 statement. "For me, one of those people was Ab Mikva. When I was graduating law school, Ab encouraged me to pursue public service. He saw something in me that I didn't yet see in myself, but I know why he did it—Ab represented the best of public service himself and he believed in empowering the next generation of young people to shape our country. Ab's life was a testament to that truth."
Obama added, "In every position he held, Ab's integrity and wisdom consistently put him on the right side of history, from fighting against prejudice and discrimination and for free speech and civil liberties. He reformed Illinois's criminal code, defended consumers' rights, and although his decision striking down the ban on gay Americans serving in our military was overturned, history proved him right."
That November 1993 decision on gays in the military—written when Mikva was chief judge in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit—likened the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy to racial segregation.
"A cardinal principle of equal protection law holds that the Government cannot discriminate against a certain class in order to give effect to the prejudice of others," Mikva wrote. "Even if the Government does not itself act out of prejudice, it cannot discriminate in an effort to avoid the effects of others' prejudice. Such discrimination plays directly into the hands of the bigots; it ratifies and encourages their prejudice."
Mikva began his career with a clerkship with Supreme Court Justice Sherman Minton, and, in 1956, won a spot in the Illinois House of Representatives. It was there he had a hand in drafting legislation that would eventually result in overhauls of the state's criminal code in 1961. That code eliminated sodomy as criminal act, making Illinois the first state to enact such a provision.
As reported in the book Gay Press, Gay Power by Tracy Baim, Time magazine looked at laws across the country in an August 5, 1955, article, "Sin & Criminality." It was a report on the annual meeting of the American Law Institute, at which the institute voted on a Model Penal Code: "By a heavy majority, the lawyers agreed that adultery should not be a statutory crime. Sodomy proved more controversial. In the end, the model code provided criminal penalties for homosexual behavior 'involving force, adult corruption of minors and public offense.' But a broader provision caused a sharper argument. This clause held that 'a person who engages in an act of deviate sexual intercourse' commits a crime."
Judge John J. Parker, 69, of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, "opposed the argument that private homosexuality should not be enjoined by the law merely because the law, pragmatically, cannot stop it," Time reported.
But Learned Hand, 83, retired chief judge of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, disagreed. Time reported him as saying: "Criminal law which is not enforced practically is much worse than if it was not on the books at all ... I think it [sodomy] is a matter of morals, a matter very largely of taste, and it is not a matter that people should be put in prison about."
The group voted 35—24 to recommend that sodomy and adultery "be removed from the list of crimes against the peace and dignity of the state," Time reported.
This likely led to Mikva's pursuit of changing Illinois law to eliminate the sodomy ban, and the timing worked well since Illinois was overhauling its laws.
As reported in Baim's book Out and Proud in Chicago, the sodomy law had carried a one- to 10-year prison sentence and rendered the perpetrator "forever … incapable of holding any office of honor, trust or profit, or voting at any election, or serving as a juror … ."
Mikva won a post to the U.S. Congress in 1968 then was later appointed as a federal judge by President Jimmy Carter. In 1994, he became President Bill Clinton's White House counsel. He resigned due to exhaustion.
"Not only was [Mikva] involved in the judicial and political careers of many, including President Obama, but he created the Mikva Challenge, which will continue to inspire, empower, and encourage young people for years to come," said Mayor Rahm Emanuel in a statement. "The first political campaign I ever worked on was Abner's Congressional campaign in Illinois' 10th District, and I later had the privilege of working with him in the White House during the Clinton administration.
"Abner was not only a great Chicagoan, but a great American. The thoughts and prayers of Amy and I are with Zoe and the entire Mikva family."
