Thurgood Marshall

When It Comes to the Free Speech Rights of Teachers, the Joke's on Us

Sam Chaltain | Posted 04.18.2012

Read More: Supreme Court, Public Employees, US Supreme Court, First Amendment, Arizona, Thurgood Marshall, Ninth Circuit, Free Speech, Education News

Let's enjoy a short laugh at the foolishness of Arizona's lawmakers to muzzle their state's public school teachers. And then let's remember that a more carefully constructed bill may not be as outlandish, and unlikely, as we think.

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Other People's Children

Sam Chaltain | Posted 03.25.2012

Read More: Texas, US Supreme Court, 14th Amendment, Education, Equity, School Funding, Education Reform, Thurgood Marshall, Fairness, Video, Education News

We continue to tolerate a system in which your zip code determines your access to the American Dream, and in which communities refuse to fund their schools because "their" children no longer go there.

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Derrick Bell: Changing the Odds for Others

Marian Wright Edelman | Posted 03.20.2012

Read More: Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Derrick-Bell-Death, Remembering-Derrick-Bell, Derrick Bell, Derrick Bell Death, Advocate, Remembering Derrick Bell, Advocacy, Civil Justice, Activist, Law, University of Southern California, Education and Welfare, Lawyer, Harvard, Race, Injustice, School Desegregation, Civil Rights Division, Department of Justice, Thurgood Marshall, Racism and American Law, Naacp, Racial Justice, Office for Civil Rights, University of Oregon, University of Pittsburgh, Race and Law, Legal Defense Fund, Harvard University, Oregon Law School, U.S. Department of Health, Racial Inequality, Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism, New York University, Inequality, Politics News

Throughout his storied career as a lawyer, law professor, and legal scholar until his death last October at age 80, Derrick Bell was well-known for his willingness to stand up and speak out about the injustices he saw around him, even when it cost him his own positions.

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Robert Carter, Fighter Against Segregation, Dies

AP | DEEPTI HAJELA | Posted 03.05.2012

Read More: School Desegregation, Civil Rights Movement Robert Carter, Desegregation, Civil Rights Movement, Thurgood Marshall, Robert Carter Obit, Robert Carter, Black Voices News

NEW YORK — Robert Carter, a lawyer who was an integral member of the team led by Thurgood Marshall that turned to the courts to battle segregati...

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58 Years Later, LSU's First Black Undergraduate Receives Honorary Degree

Gilbert King | Posted 07.23.2011

Read More: New Orleans, Lsu, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Gilbert King, A.P. Tureaud, Rachel Emanuel, Books, College, Thurgood Marshall, Civil Rights, College News

More than a half-century ago, Alexander P. Tureaud Jr. became the first African-American undergraduate at Louisiana State University until students, teachers, the administration and the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals forced him out before he could finish his first semester.

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Is a Free Education a Fundamental Right?

Sam Chaltain | Posted 07.17.2011

Read More: Equality, 14th Amendment, Education, Constitutional Amendment, Brown v. Board of Education, Equity, U.S. Constitution, Education Reform, Fairness, Thurgood Marshall, U.S. Supreme Court, Education News

In today's America, when it comes to public education, have we allowed our five-digit zip codes to become the equivalent of a lottery ticket to a better future? Is this really who we wish to be?

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In a Mostly Caucasian Oscar Year, a Tribute to Sidney Poitier

John Farr | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Denzel Washington, The Academy Awards, Civil Rights Movement, Gene Wilder, Stanley Kramer, Best Movies on DVD, Spike Lee, Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, Best Movies by Farr, Ruby Dee, Harry Belafonte, Race, Rod Steiger, Civil Rights, Black History Month, Richard Pryor, Michael Caine, Halle Berry, Shelley Winters, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Bill Cosby, Richard Widmark, Thurgood Marshall, Tony Curtis, Entertainment News

There are some celebrities who, by virtue of what they represent and contribute beyond their talent, become something more than simply what their chosen profession would indicate.

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The 50 Most Influential Progressives of the 20th Century

Peter Dreier | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: John L. Lewis, Louis Brandeis, Eleanor Roosevelt, Upton Sinclair, John Dewey, The Nation, W.E.B. Dubois, Frances Perkins, Roger Baldwin, Margaret Sanger, 50 Most Influential Progressives, Lincoln Steffens, Eugene Debs, Jane Addams, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Norman Thomas, Florence Kelley, Earl Warren, I.F. Stone, Ella Baker, Walter Reuther, Woody Guthrie, Jackie Robinson, Harry Hay, Thurgood Marshall, A.J. Musge, Rachel Carson, Sidney Hillman, Henry Wallace, A. Philip Randolph, Saul Alinsky, Paul Robeson, Politics News

We all stand on the shoulders of earlier generations of radicals and reformers who challenged the status quo of their day. Unfortunately, most Americans know little of this progressive history.

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A Coda to the Kagan Nomination: Empathy, Impartiality and the (Mis)Education of Jeff Sessions

John Paul Rollert | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Supreme Court, Objectivity, Empathy, Elena Kagan, Jeff Sessions, David Souter, Thurgood Marshall, Barack Obama, Adam Smith, Politics News

Those who believe that the law is not always so clear, that Constitutional values will sometimes be at odds, will argue that Justices will occasionally have to look beyond the law.

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The GOP v. the 14th Amendment

Michael B. Keegan | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Senator Russell Pearce, Immigration Reform, Politics, 14th Amendment, Immigration, Right Wing, Constitution, Thurgood Marshall, Tom Tancredo, Politics News

With this latest rallying cry to repeal the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment, the Republican Party has disowned one of the greatest steps forward in American history.

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Would a Black Judge Have Been Biased in Brown v. Board of Education?

Cenk Uygur | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Gay Rights, Conservatives, Brown v. Board of Education, Prop 8, Judge Vaughn Walker, Thurgood Marshall, Gay Marriage, Civil Rights, Politics News

There are no rational arguments for denying gay Americans the same rights that straight Americans already enjoy. We'll probably hear more irrationality from the right on this issue, but it won't last. They've already lost.

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Elena Kagan Memos Show Supreme Court Nominee Was Wary Of Conservatives As Clerk For Thurgood Marshall

AP | MARK SHERMAN and JESSICA GRESKO | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Warren Court, Abortion, Women's Rights, Thurgood Marshall, Gun's, William Rehnquist, Prisoner's Rights, Supreme Court, Gop, Inmates, Democrats, Elena Kagan, Politics News

WASHINGTON — As a young lawyer working for Justice Thurgood Marshall, Elena Kagan repeatedly expressed her concern that a conservative Supreme C...

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REVIEWS: Laurence Fishburne As Thurgood Marshall

Anna Almendrala | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Thurgood Play, Laurence Fishburne, Thurgood Marshall, Elena Kagan, Los Angeles News

Last month, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee were so desperately searching for a chink in Kagan's armor (and coming up short) that they r...

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Mockingbird at 50: Thurgood Marshall and Atticus Finch

Gilbert King | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Harpercollins, Atticus Finch, Thurgood Marshall, Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Gilbert King, Books News

My daughter has grown up in a different time and a different place than Jean Louise "Scout" Finch, and there's no denying that the country is different, too, in part because of the heroics of a real life lawyer named Thurgood Marshall.

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Kagan Kabuki Theater Delivers More than Drama and Comedy

Brian Ross | Posted 05.25.2011

OPINION - The senatorial process of vetting Supreme Court candidates is about as close to Kabuki theater as we get in America. Elena Kagan did the ri...

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It's Still All About Race

Stanley Kutler | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Orrin Hatch, Supreme Court Nominee, Post-Racial, Thurgood Marshall, Elena Kagan, Republican Racial Politics, Politics News

Kagan, as is well known by now, clerked for Justice Thurgood Marshall, the Supreme Court's first African-American. Apparently, there is no statute of limitations on the kind of attacks Marshall endured in life.

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Some Lessons Learned In Dean Kagan's Senate Classroom

Nan Aron | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Elena Kagan Nomination, Judicial Activism, Senator-Sessions, Elena Kagan Scotus, Senator Franken, Judicial Nominations, Al Franken, Thurgood Marshall, Corporate Court, Elena Kagan, Elena Kagan Supreme Court, Republicans, Politics News

I don't think we're always going to agree with everything she does, but we now know the Court will be getting someone who is committed to fundamental principles of fairness.

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Supreme Court Hearings Remind Us of What's at Stake

David A. Love | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Supreme Court, Civil Liberties, Gun Control, Jeff Sessions, Lindsey Graham, Strom Thurmond, Jon Kyl, Civil Rights, Gun Violence, Abner Mikva, Segregation, Sonia Sotomayor, Racism, Orrin Hatch, Gop, Thurgood Marshall, Elena Kagan, Politics News

The Kagan hearings, or any Supreme Court hearings for that matter, are part of the war to win over the hearts and minds of America, to determine what kind of country we want this to become.

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Elena Kagan and the Right Wing Dog That Didn't Bark

Lincoln Mitchell | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Supreme Court, White House, Tea Party, Rand Paul, Robert Bork, Ronald Reagan, Sharron Angle, George W. Bush, Elena Kagan, Barack Obama, Douglas Ginsburg, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Wise Latina, Harvard Law School, Republican Party, Thurgood Marshall, Politics News

Kagan's imminent confirmation, like Justice Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation last year, demonstrates that when the White House is faced with contained and discrete political choices, they are able to make good decisions.

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Thurgood Marshall's Son Calls Elena Kagan 'Scary Smart'

Politics Daily | Patricia Murphy | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Thurgood Marshall, Supreme Court, Thurgood Marshall Jr, Elena Kagan, Thurgood Marshall Elena Kagan, Elena Kagan Supreme Court, Politics News

Thurgood Marshall Jr. is a Washington lawyer and the son of the late Justice Thurgood Mashall, the first African-American member of the U.S. Supreme C...

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Thurgood Marshall Attack: New Wrinkle in GOP Hit Plan on Kagan

Earl Ofari Hutchinson | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Supreme Court, Justice-Thurgood-Marshall, Thurgood Marshall, Elena Kagan, Elena-Kagan-Thurgood-Marshall, Elena Kagan Supreme Court, Politics News

The GOP goal: to bully, cow, and badger Kagan to insure that she toes the line not solely before the panel, but on the bench. The plan also senda a firm message to the Obama administration about conservative politics.

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Thurgood Marshall On Trial: Republican Senators Use Elena Kagan's Supreme Court Hearing To Trash Her Mentor (VIDEO)

Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Elena Kagan Nomination, Elena Kagan Thurgood Marshall, Orrin Hatch, Elena Kagan Confirmation, Orrin Hatch Thurgood Marshall, Thurgood Marshall, Elena Kagan, Elena Kagan Confirmation Hearings, Elena Kagan Supreme Court, Video, Politics News

Republican senators sound increasingly unlikely to try and block Elena Kagan's confirmation to the Supreme Court, owing perhaps in part to public apat...

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Thurgood Marshall Speaks To Obama From Beyond The Grave

HuffingtonPost.com | Dan Froomkin | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Thurgood Marshall, Thurgood Marshall Obama, Obama Supreme Court, Laurence Fishburne, Scotus, Obama Elena Kagan, Thurgood Marshall Kennedy Center, Elena Kagan, Politics News

Barack Obama and I went to see "Thurgood" at the Kennedy Center over the weekend. We didn't exactly go together. In fact we didn't even go on the sa...

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Kagan is No Lady Gaga of Law

Paul Helmke | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Supreme Court, White House, Gun Makers, District of Columbia, Solicitor General Elena Kagan, President Obama, Gun Rights, Gun Control, Lady GaGa, Harvard, Guns, Gun Violence, Obama White House, Harvard Law School, Washington Post, Fashion, Target Shooting Club, Thurgood Marshall, Clinton White House, Brady Law, America's Next Top Model, Heller Decision, Gun Ban, Second Amendment, Gun Laws, Gun Manufacturers, Style, District of Columbia v. Heller, Solicitor General, Obama Supreme Court Nominee, Semiautomatic Weapons, Heller, Elena Kagan, Clinton Library, President Clinton, Politics News

Maybe Kagan is no Lady Gaga when it comes to fashion. But for most Americans, the way Kagan outfits herself is just fine. What's in her mind and her heart are far more important than what's on her back, neck, or her ring finger.

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The Protestant Seat on the Supreme Court

Geoffrey R. Stone | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Supreme Court, Justice Stevens, John Paul Stevens, Thurgood Marshall, Protestants, Religion, Supreme Court Protestants, Supreme Court Protestant Seat, Christianity, Religion News

Should President Obama nominate a Protestant to succeed Justice Stevens? If not, this will be the first time in American history without a Protestant on the Court.

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