Thoroughgood

“He said little during the argument sessions, growling occasionally at lawyers who were struggling lamely through their arguments and sometimes training his sarcasm on his own colleagues. During a death penalty argument in 1981, William H. Rehnquist, then an Associate Justice, suggested that the inmate’s repeated appeals had cost the taxpayers too much money. Justice Marshall interrupted, saying, “It would have been cheaper to shoot him right after he was arrested, wouldn’t it?”

Today would have been former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall’s 93rd birthday. You don’t often hear someone referred to as “a great American” anymore, but he was one; you can read his obituary on the New York Times Learning Network. (I don’t think this part of the website requires registration.)

Every day the New York Times website reprints the obituary of a famous person who was born on that day. There’s a link to it in a gray box entitled “On This Day” about halfway down the page. If you read me regularly, you know that I’m a New York Times junkie, but the paper really does know how to do a good obituary. (Not to get too morbid for you on a Monday morning.) I also did some random clicking and found this online guide to the Old Gray Lady, who now has some henna in her hair.
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