Day 26: Thurgood Marshall

[A18]

Discuss.

[A18]

Sorry about the hiatus. It's been a rough three days for me personally.

Anyway, Thurgood Marshall was easily one of the worst justices to ever serve on the Supreme Court of the United States. From the beginning, Brennan and Marshall saw eye-to-eye on just about everything; each brought his political agenda to the court, and their political agendas were remarkably similar. Hence, what can be said about Brennan can usually be said about Marshall, and vice versa.

The most glaring example of Marshall's results-based jurisprudence is in the field of the Eighth Amendment. Beginning with Gregg v. Georgia, Marshall dissented in every case to uphold the use of the death penalty, as well as denials of cert., believing it to be 'unconstitutional' in all circumstances. How that could be so in light of the Fifth Amendment's three obvious references to it is a mystery to me, but one can only conclude that the text of the Constitution he swore fidelity to meant very little to Marshall.

There is also evidence that Marshall remained on the court well beyond the point where he could function normally, and became extraordinarily dependent on Brennan in his later years on the bench.

[MaC]

What was horrible was the popularity of 'substansive' due process at that time.

[Sam Spade]

Brennan and Marshall.  The duo from hell.  Lest more be said.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Total FF