Confirmation Process for Thurgood Marshall

For the next few weeks, we will be watching the confirmation proceedings of people President Bush nominates as justices to the U.S. Supreme Court. As of this writing, John Roberts’ nomination as Chief Justice is set to go before the full senate. The nominations … and appointments … of judges have huge implications for us as African Americans, and always have.

Thurgood Marshall, the first African American to be named to the nation’s highest court, knew the confirmation process well. Mr. Marhsell, who successfully argued the “Brown vs. Education” case in 1954, was nominated to the High Court by then-President Lyndon B. Johnson. He is credited with breaking a 178-year old color barrier on the Supreme Court, and his work did much to transform the lives of African Americans. He is credited with defeating segregation in the one place it really mattered: the courts.

Mr. Marshall’s ascendancy to the high court was not easy! In 1965, President Johnson named him to be his Solicitor General. Among the cases he argued before the Supreme Court in this position was one that resulted in the court voting to adopt the Miranda Rule, which requires police to inform suspects of their rights. He was a formidable attorney, never backing down, never giving up.

Mr. Marshall’s movement toward the Supreme Court began with his being nominated to the Appellate Court. Robert Kennedy, who was the Attorney General at the time, encouraged Mr. Marshall NOT to allow himself to be nominated to that court, fearing the opposition ahead, but Mr. Marshall ignored Kennedy and took the nomination. Once nominated, it took the Senate Judiciary Committee eight months to schedule the confirmation hearings! In the end, the conservative senator from Mississippi, James Eastland, told Robert Kennedy to tell his brother, President John Kennedy, that he would “give him the nigger “ if Kennedy would nominate conservative Judge Harold Cox to a district court. President Kennedy did just that, and shortly thereafter, Mr. Marshall was named to the appellate court.

When Mr. Marshall was nominated to the high court in 1967, there was much opposition, particularly by white southern senators. There were four senators from the South on the Judiciary Committee – Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, Sam Ervin of North Carolina, James Eastland of Mississippi and John McClellan of Arkansas – and they all opposed him! During the confirmation hearings, Thurmond asked Mr. Marshall 60 questions on Constitutional history and the meaning of the 134th, 14th and 15th amendments. Mr. Marshall rose to the task – albeit racist and unfair … and was finally confirmed by a vote of 69-11.

Mr. Marshall’s story is fascinating and one which we should all know. Far from the legacy (or lack thereof) being left by Clarence Thomas, Thurgood Marshall was a judge who advocated for a people who up to that point had had no real voice. Many of the freedoms we have today we owe to him.