Maryland lawmakers have introduced legislation to do a little Capitol remodeling. Specifically, they’re hoping to swap out a bust adorning the old Supreme Court chamber where for the last 143 years, the state has been represented by Dred Scott author Chief Justice Roger Taney.
George Templeton Strong best summed up Taney, writing upon the occasion of his passing, “the Hon. old Roger B. Taney has earned the gratitude of his country by dying at last. Better late than never.” During the initial debate to get Taney’s bust into the Capitol building, a New Hampshire senator said that Taney “sank into his grave without giving a cheering word or a helping hand to the country he had vainly sought to place forever by judicial authority under the iron rule of the slave-masters.”
Yet Taney eventually got his bust and it’s managed to remain undisturbed as the world changed in fits and starts — and setbacks — for almost a century and a half. Even the Maryland statehouse quietly dumped their Taney tribute.
But now Maryland’s senators, with backing from the Democratic members of the Maryland House delegation, are proposing to junk the bust in favor of Baltimore native Thurgood Marshall.
If successful, the replacement would provide a fitting closure to the history of Maryland’s place in the old chamber. A jurist famed for his staunch defense of the system of slavery replaced by the nation’s first justice descended from slaves. Thurgood Marshall’s legacy as an attorney, Johnson administration official, and Supreme Court justice deserve tribute in the Capitol regardless, but to bring that tribute at the symbolic expense of a man who worked to prevent all of Marshall’s accomplishments would only underscore the significance of his enshrinement.
Taney’s earned his place in the dustbin of history, it’s time for Congress to help him move.
Thurgood Marshall bust would replace one of Roger Taney in U.S. Capitol under legislation introduced by Maryland senators [Baltimore Sun]
Earlier: Horrible Justice No Longer Has Horrible Statue
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.