Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday erroneously claimed that the Supreme Court was composed of all white men “until 1981,” glossing over Thurgood Marshall, the first black justice.
“Until 1981, this powerful body, the Supreme Court, was all white men. Imagine,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “America wasn’t all white men in 1981, or ever. Under President Biden and this Senate majority, we’re taking historic steps to make the courts look more like the country they serve.”
Schumer later acknowledged in a tweet that he “misspoke” during his speech, apologizing for the error. “Of course, I remember the dedication and legal excellence that Thurgood Marshall brought to the Supreme Court,” he said.
Schumer’s mention of 1981 serves as a reference to the nomination of Sandra Day O’Connor by President Ronald Reagan, making her the first woman to join the nation’s highest court. The nomination and Senate confirmation of Justice Clarence Thomas, the second black Supreme Court justice, came a decade later.
But Schumer initially failed to mention the first black Supreme Court justice, Marshall, who was nominated by President Lyndon Johnson in 1967 and confirmed by the Senate. Marshall was an associate justice until he retired in 1991, paving the way for Thomas’s nomination by President George H.W. Bush. Marshall died in 1993.
Sorry that I misspoke earlier today. Of course, I remember the dedication and legal excellence that Thurgood Marshall brought to the Supreme Court.
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) February 3, 2022
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“Under President Biden and this Senate majority, we’re taking historic steps to make the courts look more like the country they serve by confirming highly qualified diverse nominees,” Schumer added, as Democrats work toward fulfilling President Joe Biden’s pledge to nominate a black woman to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.
Marshall was a lawyer and civil rights activist who successfully argued several desegregation cases before the Supreme Court, including Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 ruling that declared “separate but equal” unconstitutional in public schools. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy appointed Marshall to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit. Marshall remained on that court until 1965, when Johnson appointed him to be the United States Solicitor General, making him the first black person to hold the office.
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Marshall’s Supreme Court tenure is not ancient history. Schumer, 71, was a student at Harvard College and then Harvard Law School during Marshall’s early years on the Supreme Court.
