When in Gregg v. Georgia the Supreme Court gave its seal of approval to capital punishment, this endorsement was premised on the promise that capital punishment would be administered with fairness and justice. Instead, the promise has become a cruel… — Thurgood Marshall Copy Share Image
The death penalty is no more effective a deterrent than life imprisonment... It is also evident that the burden of capital punishment falls upon the poor, the ignorant and the underprivileged members of society. — Thurgood Marshall Copy Share Image
None of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. — Thurgood Marshall Copy Share Image
This is a great country, but fortunately for you, it is not perfect. There is much to be done to bring about complete equality.… — Thurgood Marshall Copy Share Image
Classifications and distinctions based on race or color have no moral or legal validity in our society. They are contrary to our constitution and… — Thurgood Marshall Copy Share Image
Our whole constitutional heritage rebels at the thought of giving government the power to control men's minds. — Thurgood Marshall Copy Share Image
We could get more action in the South because the Negroes had a feeling that they were being oppressed. But you take New York,… — Thurgood Marshall Copy Share Image
I have a lifetime appointment and I intend to serve it. I expect to die at 110, shot by a jealous husband. — Thurgood Marshall Copy Share Image
The Ku Klux Klan never dies. They just stop wearing sheets because sheets cost too much. — Thurgood Marshall Copy Share Image
Some may more quietly commemorate the suffering, struggle, and sacrifice that has triumphed over much of what was wrong with the original document, and… — Thurgood Marshall Copy Share Image
It is now well established that the Constitution protects the right to receive information and ideas. ... This right to receive information and ideas,… — Thurgood Marshall Copy Share Image
To the contrary, the government they devised was defective from the start, requiring several amendments, a civil war and momentous social transformation to attain… — Thurgood Marshall Copy Share Image
