The magnitude of these accomplishments cannot be underestimated. By comparison, none of the current justices has held both prestigious government posts nor matched Marshall’s record of courtroom victories. He left to serve as a federal appellate judge before becoming solicitor general, the government’s top Supreme Court advocate. As the NAACP’s chief attorney, he won 29 cases before the Supreme Court, several of them landmark rulings that changed the course of history. That Marshall’s nomination was heavily contested reflected the intensity of the region’s animosity toward a man one committee member called the “public enemy of the South.” Marshall, after all, came to the position with nearly unmatched credentials. On and on it went as Marshall’s foes took turns firing verbal volleys like hunting buddies at a shooting range.
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