FOR JUSTICE MARSHALL, A BLUNT BEGINNING
“I want the top lawyer representing me before the Supreme Court to be a Negro.” With those blunt words, President Lyndon Johnson in July 1965 offered the job of solicitor general to Thurgood Marshall, the famed civil rights lawyer who was then an appeals court judge. When Marshall replied, “Oh,” Johnson added another qualification: “and be a damn good lawyer that’s done it before.” That and other taped LBJ conversations have been public before — C-SPAN Radio has broadcast some — but the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia is transcribing and releasing audio in chunks, focusing last week on Marshall. Marshall’s appointment was a quick hit with the Court, Johnson reported in a chat that fall with NAACP head Roy Wilkins. Johnson said his old friend Abe Fortas, newly installed on the Supreme Court, sent him a note after Marshall made his first argument as SG, exclaiming, “By God, he was brilliant!” — Tony Mauro
OPPOSITION MOUNTS TO COBELL FEE REQUEST
