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- PrepTest 125
- Section 3, Question 5
Most of what has been written about Thurgood(466 more words not shown)
The passage provides the most(8 more words not shown)
- AThe ideological motivations(15 more words not shown)
- BMarshall declined to(24 more words not shown)
- CMarshall's tactics were(15 more words not shown)
- DMarshall relied more(21 more words not shown)
- EMarshall's colleagues at(23 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
This is open-ended: we need a statement supported by what we read. Keep the actual account in view—carefully selected cases and plaintiffs, expert evidence, and later use by other groups. Don't fill in a history of Marshall's Supreme Court career that we weren't given.
Working the answers
- A
Nothing describes his ideological views changing while on the Supreme Court.
- BCorrect
Marshall deliberately chose cases whose plaintiffs would win public sympathy (paragraph 2), and the plaintiff's public appeal could determine success or failure. That supports his passing over some otherwise suitable cases because their plaintiffs would make an unfavorable impression. Matching the NAACP's goals alone wasn't his only selection criterion.
- C
Some legal scholars criticized his use of nonlegal evidence. They aren't identified as NAACP members favoring traditional tactics.
- D
There's no comparison of how often he used expert testimony in lower and higher courts, or of those judges' receptiveness to statistics.
- E
Other public interest lawyers applied his methods to different goals. We're not told that his NAACP colleagues revised and extended them. The answer changes who did the work.
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