thurgood marshall. it is wonderful to see you.applause] i remember being humbled more than once by your lead, iconic husband. he knew how to ask a question, and i struggled to figure a way to answer. it is a great privilege to have you here. i would also add that the statute itself creating the office is pristine in its simplicity, describing a simple role, to assist the attorney general. the attorney-general, who's office was created in 19th 79 -- the office took a long time in -- created in 1879, and it took a long time in gestation. it was through federal law enforcement that it began to exist at all. but i was grateful for the attorney general, which would bring us to the political dimension of the job, politics versus wall -- law. but one of the most intriguing aspects was that occasionally the solicitor general will find themselves the acting attorney general for a particular matter, especially matters of national security, which we should not talk about except to say is one of the most intriguing parts of the job. and i fou

to take to judges that i like, brennan and thurgood marshall, both of them were just hanging on hoping they could out live reagan. [laughter] and then, maybe bush will be defeated after one term, as he was but they quit when bush's popularity was very high and looked like a shoe-in and aegis believe they could accurately out of a second term. but, there is no good in people hanging on past their prime and most of the justices do that. the other thing i went through all the 20th-century judges with the standard, what did they add to the american jurisprudence in the course of their career? and with the exception of bill brannon, every single justice that i looked at had within 18 years accomplished everything jurisprudentially that they were going to offer to american law, so i don't see any need for an added term. this is about a quixotic question as one could have and not surprisingly, if you took a vote among the supreme court justices about life tenure he would finally get unanimity on a fairly divided court. >> wait for the bloom for one second. it will drop on your head. >> if the

justice powell, justice harry blackmun's papers are the library of congress, justice thurgood marshall's papers are the library of congress, william brennan's papers are mostly of the library of congress, so these justices documents provided a lot of material for me to see what would happen in the drafting process. and that's where i was able to detect and justice scalia i have lost a majority and you know, from the outside you often wouldn't know that. in fact it's funny you bring this up because i just today heard from a lawyer who argued one of the cases that had been 5-4 in the opposite direction until justice scalia lost the majority and bill brennan switched votes and then went the other way. and i was a lawyer who'd been on the case and didn't know what happened. >> host: he didn't know he almost lost. >> guest: yes, you wouldn't know unless he went to look it up, and i think in the late -- in the early 1990's when justice thurgood marshall's papers became available it was a very big deal to journalists and lawyers and other observers. people started looking at these. but as a mat

thurgood marshall. it is wonderful to see you. your lead, iconic husband. he knew how to ask a question, and i struggled to figure a way to answer. it is a great privilege to have you here. i would also add that the statute itself creating the office is pristine in its simplicity, describing a simple role, to assist the attorney general. the attorney-general, who's office was created in 19th 79 -- the office took a long time in -- created in 1879, and it took a long time in gestation. it was through federal law enforcement that it began to exist at all. but i was grateful for the attorney general, which would bring us to the political dimension of the job, politics versus wall -- law. but one of the most intriguing aspects was that occasionally the solicitor general will find themselves the acting attorney general for a particular matter, especially matters of national security, which we should not talk about except to say is one of the most intriguing parts of the job. and i found i was called to do various projects, including wo

thurgood marshall. it's wonderful to see you. [applause] i remember being humbled more than once by your late iconic husband. he knew how to ask is a question, and i struggled to figure out a way to answer it, but it's a great privilege to be here. i would also add that the statute itself creates the office is pristine in its simplicity, and it describes a very simple role, to assist the attorney general. it's the attorney general whose office was created by the judiciary act of 1789 and as has been said, the office of the solicitor general took a long time to, in gestation. it was 1870 with the post-civil war growth of federal law enforcement that the office came to exist at all. but i would simply flag, briefly, the assist the attorney general which will bring us at some point to the, quote, political dimension of the job, politics versus law as sometimes juxtaposed. but i found one of the most intriguing aspects, and it wasn't an everyday opportunity or responsibility, but occasionally the solicitor general will find herself o

wouldn't know unless he went to look it up and i think in the late -- early 1990's when justice thurgood marshall'spapers became available and it was a big deal to lawyers and other observers, people started living of these but as a matter of routine only law professors and some journalists such as myself spent a lot of time in newspapers. >> host: and i think -- so they keep a secret but than after they leave this planet to the papers become available and you can figure out a lot of things that happen. >> guest: some of the justices don't and i had a justice -- the conversation with sandra day o'connor and she said directly to not hold your breath. get on with your life. >> host: and justice souter said it's going to be a long time. >> guest: it's a shame, from his but if you he thinks it's nobody's business and i think fellow justices are happy because when they send a note to a colleague did like to keep it quiet i think but for a journalist it's great because then you know what was going on and gives you insight into the finished product were all you see is the final law of the land which obvio

charles hamilton houston, thurgood marshall, our early parent years in this area. 55 years after their historic work we continue to struggle with the issue of an achievement gap. we must applaud congressman scott for addressing this issue because all children, all children, regardless of ethnicity, race, ability, are entitled first and foremost to equal respect. to equal opportunity. to equal treatment. to = status. and to equal place. as long as we have an achievement gap, that simply will not and cannot happen. we must address that issue. it is a moral right. it is a civil right. it is a parental right. is an ethical right. to day as my distinguished colleagues on the panel have illustrated, it is a legal right. it must be addressed. thank you very much for allowing us to be here. we end where we start. the very existence of an achievement gap demonstrates low-income and minority children have been deprived of equal educational opportunities in violation of the u.s. constitution and our answer is undeniable yes. thank you very much. >> thank you. before we get to cynthia roberts i wa

william howard taft, stanley reed, robert jackson, and thurgood marshall. and two current justice served in the office of the solicitor general, chief justice john roberts with, and associate justice samuel alito. now justice marshal said that being solicitor general was quote, the best job he ever had and he had some good jobs. i hope we'll learn this evening if our panel agrees with justice marshal's statement. gentlemen, let me begin by asking paul as the most recent occupant of the office of the solicitor general, to briefly explain the job of the solicitor general in today's justice department and if it's possible to do so, to describe what an average day is like in the life of the solicitor general? >> i would be happy to try, ken. i think as to the average day in the life of the solicitor general, there probably isn't an average day and that is part of what makes the job so interesting and so fascinating. the job's basic responsibility in a nutshell, i think is to probably start with the most public role of the solicitor general and that is, his repr

got out of all schools i've been working on civilized matters, first they're good marshall -- thurgood marshalland a variety of other positions. i guess what i would like to hear at this point is what is your -- borut objectives are in the area that most concerns me and a lot of other people in civil rights, and that is whether you agree or not with the goals stated in no child left behind and that the gap, the achievement gap should be closed between white kids and black kids between kids of color andpulled. florida keeps it going. dominic moore. shorthanded breakaway. scoring for good measure. panthers lead 6-3 in the 3rd. >> capitals and the canucks about to get it on in vancouver and you can see it right here on comcast sportsnet. they have won eight of their last 10. thank you for watching comcast sportsnet washington sports leader. >> for michael jenkins i'm chris miller. now let's head to vancouver, the caps taking on the canucks. papa john's opening face-off coming up. captions by: caption colorado, llc 800-775-7838 email: comments@captioncolorado.com "this broadcast realtime captioned

charles hamilton houston, thurgood marshall, among our early pioneers in this era.yet, 55 years after their historic work, we continue to struggle with the issue of an achievement gap. so we must applaud congressman scott for addressing this issue. because all children regardless of ethnicity, regardless of race, regardless of ability, are entitled first and foremost to equal respect, to equal opportunity, to equal treatment, to equal status, and to equal place. and as long as we have an achievement gap that simply will not and cannot happen. we must address that issue. it is a moral right, it's a civil right, it's a parental right, it's an ethical right. today, as many of my distinguished colleagues on the panel have illustrated, it's a legal right. it must be addressed. thank you very much for allowing us to be here, but we believe we and where we start. the very existence of an achievement gap demonstrate that low-income and minority children have been deprived of equal educational opportunities and violation of the u.s. constitution. our answer is undeniably yes

justice powell, just hear blackburn's papers, thurgood marshall's papers, william brennan papers are mostly public at the library of congress. so these justices' documents provided a lot of material for me to see what would happen in the drafting process and that's where i was able to detect when justice scalia might have lost a majority, and from the outside you often don't know that. but in fact it's good to bring this up because i just heard from a lawyer who argued one of the cases that had been 5-4 in the opposite direction until justice scalia lost the majority, and bill brennan switched votes and it went the other way, and that was a lawyer that had been on the case and didn't know it happened. >> host: didn't know he almost lost? >> guest: you wouldn't know unless you went to look it up. and i think in the late -- in the early 1990s, when justice thurgood marshalls papers became available, and it was very big deal to journalists and observers, people started looking at them but only as a matter of routine people spend a lot of time in those papers. >> host: so they keep at it