The Souter Resignation: Replacing Thurgood Marshall
graduated from Frederick Douglass High School in Baltimore in 1926 and from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania in 1930. Afterward, Marshall wanted to apply to his hometown law school, the University of Maryland School of Law, but the dean told him that he would not be accepted due to the school's segregation policy. Later, as a civil rights litigator, he successfully sued the school for this policy in the case of Murray v. Pearson. As he could not attend the University of Maryland, Marshall sought admission and was accepted at Howard University. He was influenced by its new dean, Charles Hamilton Houston, who instilled in his students the desire to apply the tenets of the Constitution to all Americans. Marshall was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, the first intercollegiate Black Greek-letter fraternity, established by African American students in 1906.
President John F. Kennedy appointed Marshall to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 1961. A group of Democratic Party Senators led by Mississippi's James Eastland held up his confirmation, so he served for the first several months under a recess appointment. Marshall remained on that court until 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed him Solicitor General.
In 1967, Thurgood Marshall became the first African American elevated to U.S. Supreme Court. He sreved for 24 years until he retired in 1991.
No one has been a more ardent supporter of President Obama than I. However, I do believe that he has developed a blind spot when it comes to the 'average' or 'regular person'. There are no "middle class" people appointed to serve on The Task Force on the Middle Class, or anywhere else in his administration. All of his Cabinet appointments have been Ivy League graduates, or graduates of other "elite" academic institutions. I believe that he has left himself open to criticism and charges of being elitist.
Clearly, President Obama stands on the shoulders of Thurgood Marshall, and others like him, who's legacy made his candidacy and election possible. I would like to think that the candidate who ran on "Change we can believe in", would seek to avoid old style patronage and cronyism which can cause tunnel vision and thus create the blind spot of which I speak. The danger in having a blind spot is that you can get blind-sided as a consequence.
The resignation of Justice Souter gives President Obama an opportunity to widen his field of vision regarding his key appointments. He can show that he does indeed have a complete grasp of his place in the history of African-American progress in American political and social life. He can lay a marker to ensure that the path he followed does not close behind him. He can fill the seat soon to be vacated by Justice Souter by replacing Thurgood Marshall.
Do not let Sessions close to the podium when the Senate is in confirmation hearings for a replacement for SC Justice,David Souter.
Remember, Sessions is the rabid racist who thought the Kluckers (KKK members)were just fine and was an up-to-date dues paying member of the Klan. He has even been heard bragging about his membership. That is until he found out they had a few pot smokers in the bunch. That seemed to trigger his moral outrage after learning that. He obviously had no problem with the Klan's reputation for murder, mayhem and physical abuse of nonwhites but alas, no pot smoking allowed. Like I said, do not let this guy close to the hearing. He is unfit to even speak he is so bigoted. Poor, poor thing simply has no moral rudder and surely must not subscribe to the Biblical truth that God created EVERY living creature nor the admonition that we must love EVERYONE!!! I have yet to hear Sessions disown those racist comments from years ago. Until he does so, he is best ignored totally.
May 7, 2009 11:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Unfortunately, the Senate Republicans have made it impossible to ignore Sessions. Read my post re Be A Good Republican...
May 8, 2009 12:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
Can't agree with this one. I'm a black male and I feel that he needs to nominate a woman to the Supreme Court. A highly qualified woman, of course, but a woman nontheless. Just because Bush was stopped from installing his lackey Harriet Mires on the Court, doesn't mean that the absence of women on the Court isn't a glaring sore spot. We had Thurgood Marshall. We have Obama. He doesn't have to prove anything on that point, and I think it would be a bad idea for him to try.
May 8, 2009 1:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
Replacing Thurgood Marshall does not mean appointing a black man. Read the post again. I am suggesting that Obama appoint someone with a background and hence a legal disposition similar to that of Marshall. If Obama gets a 2nd term I am certain he will have the opportunity to appoint 2 or 3 more Supreme Court jusitices, to say nothing of the lower court appointments he will be able to make. Finally, there is a difference between acknowledging one's historical lineage and proving one's place in the continuum.
Clarence Thomas does neither.
May 8, 2009 3:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
HELL YEAH. I still have a black ribbon on the rearview mirror of my car for Justice Marshall; it's got a companion in the ribbon I put up for Justice Brennan. I've had 7 cars in since 1993, I haven't been able to let go of those ribbons.
I would also like to ask RonP - is there a reason you didn't include Brown v. Topeka in the brief bio?
May 8, 2009 1:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
a) While Marshall participated and made heavy contributions, he wasn't the lead NAACP attorney.
b) Emphasis is on Marshall's career progression.
c) Brown v Board lends itself to another post.
d) General awareness of Brown allows for conservation of space here...
Thanks for the comment....
May 8, 2009 7:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hmmm, is there anyone close to a Thurgood Marshall these days?
May 8, 2009 10:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
I agree wholeheartedly. What the US SC needs is the perspective of those who have been on the 'wrong' side of the power of the state and the power of bullies. Marshall knew what it was like to be segregated; to be called 'boy'; to run in fear of a lynching. But he was also enormously - unprecedently? - experienced in legal challenge strategy and SC advocacy for the oppressed. Many brilliant US lawyers from the working-class (as we in the UK call it) leave their class as soon as they can - with a scholarship to the Ivy League and a glittering career working for wealthy clients. Can BHO find a brilliant lawyer like Marshall who never lost touch with her (or his) roots?
(PS. I'm a lawyer - and Marshall's strategies are still as valuable for test cases as they were for him.)
May 8, 2009 10:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
No matter how many half-smokes he eats at Ben's Chili Bowl, President Obama does not share the same life experiences that most of us middle-class black folks take for granted. Speaking as someone who spent years attending prep school, I noticed that his appointments all fall within a narrowly-defined range of "safe picks". By "safe", I mean "acceptable" to the majority culture, especially to so-called social elites.
Where are those of us who attended public universities or HBCUs? Where are the southerners, the church crowd, the non-Ivy League members of the Divine Nine? We're not represented at the levels that should be expected considering OUR role in getting Brother President elected. I'm curious to see what criteria Obama utilizes to choose Justice Souter's replacement.
May 8, 2009 10:18 AM | Reply | Permalink
Goldspinner, would you kindly do me the honor of making me the first blogger on this platform that you "follow".
May 8, 2009 10:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
With pleasure, sir.
May 8, 2009 6:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
I too am an attorney, read my bio. If he looks hard enough he can find a replacement for Marshall, not simply someone to fill Souter's seat.
Obama shunned a glittering and lucrative Wall Street career to work as a community organizer. However, I believe it would be to his advantage to look outside of the Ivy League, silver spoon, silk stocking loop to dispell any potential criticism re "elitism" and widen his field of vision on this and other key appointments yet to be made.
Keep in mind that I specifically referenced his search and vetting team(s). I believe that he must take steps to ensure that these folks aren't simply mirroring their own proclavities and biases in "finding" candidates for Obama to nominate.....How did they NOT find someone of the 'middle class' to take a prominent position on the "Task Force On The Middle Class"?
May 8, 2009 10:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
Goldspinner has it exactly right.
May 8, 2009 10:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
Good post! But, I think he should replace Thurgood Marshall and appoint a Black man, with real life experience. And to my mind that does not exclude Ivy League. Charles Ogletree for example is an academic scholar who knows the real world. We've had too women on the Supreme Court. How many Black men have we had? (...And NO, Clarence Thomas does not count).
May 8, 2009 3:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Lani Guinier and Derrick Bell would be good choices in spite of their Ivy League credentials. Hmmph..I want a straight-up judicial activist sitting on that bench giving Scalia and Thomas nightmares.
May 8, 2009 6:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Loving your spirt!
May 8, 2009 7:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thank you!
May 9, 2009 12:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
Should that occur would you care to join me in a celebratory half-smoked? Preferably, somewhere on Georgia Av near Howard University.
Thanks for the connect and the comments.
May 8, 2009 7:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Should that occur would you care to join me in a celebratory half-smoked? Preferably, somewhere on Georgia Av near Howard University.
Thanks for the connect and the comments.
May 8, 2009 8:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sure, why not during Homecoming? Too bad the Florida Avenue Grill isn't around anymore.
May 9, 2009 12:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
We'll try to make it official after Obama's Supreme Court Appointee is confirmed, Sen. Jeff Sessions and the say "NO", neoconservative, reactionary Republicans notwithstanding....
Thanks for the supportive comments.
I will follow your lead on the selection of an appropriate location. I'm guessing that you're a current resident of DC. My knowledge of DC and Howard is quite dated, I'm sure that I would have a hard time recognizing my Alma Mater these days....
May 9, 2009 2:31 PM | Reply | Permalink