PrepTest 125, Section 3, Question 5

DetailDifficulty2 of 5
Passage 1Thurgood Marshall’s innovations in public interest litigation
The questionFull text in your LawHub copy of PrepTest 125

Most of what has been written about Thurgood(466 more words not shown)

The passage provides the most(8 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.

  • B
    Correct

    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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