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Thurgood Marshall -- the man who should have been Chief Justice
That's my reflection on the 100th anniversary of his birth.
Thurgood Marshall is the man who could have, and should
have, been named by LBJ as chief justice. There's no way the Senate would have blocked his appointment by refusal to vote cloture, as happened with Johnson's crony appointment, Abe Fortas, who was of course rejected.
SCOTUS would have been a lot different. See my blog for details of alternative history.
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Comments (2)
Abe Fortas also argued successfully for the right of every American who is accused of a crime to be represented by competent legal counsel if s/he cannot afford one.
I have no perspective on the man outside of having read Gideon's Trumpet, so I'm afraid you'll have to enlighten me as to his bad side, if there is one. I'm open to the possibility, don't get me wrong - lawyers have plenty of nasty habits. I just wasn't aware of any aspect of his life outside of this trial, so I hope you don't mind posting a brief synopsis of the reasons you think he was unfit to be Chief Justice - I guess Congress did to, so you can tell me theirs.
Thanks for the interesting post.
July 3, 2008 11:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
"Congress did too," even
July 3, 2008 11:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
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