Austin was one of Marshall's final decisions, written just a year before he retired from an illustrious career. Before becoming the first African-American to sit on the Supreme Court, Marshall lead the NAACP's fight against segregation and argued the historic case of Brown v. Board of Education. In Austin, Justice Marshall upheld a Michigan law that prohibited corporations from spending general treasury funds to support or oppose candidates for office. He reasoned that â?oCorporate wealth can unfairly influence elections when it is deployed in the form of independent expenditures, just as it can when it assumes the guise of political contributions.â?ˇ?

Austin was emblematic of Marhsall's judicial philosophy: He sided with the powerless and the voiceless, and he navigated through legal problems by steering towards equality.

Marshall was the conscience of liberal legal thinkers. He stood strong for everything that Chief Justice Roberts and the conservative wing of the Supreme Court are now fighting. The bout has been grueling, and Marshall is now on the ropes.

The rope-a-dope began at Chief Justice John Robert's confirmation hearings. Like Muhammad Ali against George Foreman in the Rumble in the Jungle, Roberts allowed his opponents to slip into a false sense of security. During the hearings, he promised to bring â?ono agendaâ?ˇ? and to remain faithful to the law. read on