CHICAGO (AP) — Abner Mikva, a former congressman, Illinois legislator, federal appellate judge and presidential adviser, has died. He was 90 years old.
Brian Brady, the head of Mikva Challenge, a leadership organization Mikva founded, says Mikva died Monday in hospice care at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. Brady says he learned of the death from Mikva’s daughters.
Mikva, a liberal voice and stalwart of Illinois’ political landscape for decades, was most recently active in pushing for the U.S. Senate to consider the nomination of Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland.
Mikva often told of how he initially tried to get involved in Chicago politics but was told: “We don’t want nobody nobody sent.”
Brady calls Mikva “the ideal public servant” who was saddened by growing bitter animosity between the parties in Washington.
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A real shame this guy never got onto the Supreme Court. He would have been a game changer, in a good way. We have no politicians on the Court anymore— O’Connor was the last. They are more in touch with the law’s affect on real people than those who have spent most of their lives in the judicial or academic cloud.
“Democracy is a verb …” from a Mikva Challenge t-shirt that I received from last summer’s teacher’s civic workshop in Chicago. Thank you. RIP.