The Supreme Court: The Tenth Member

In a century-old ritual, Attorney General Katzenbach last week formally introduced the crack lawyer whose cases may well dominate the new term's crowded Supreme Court docket. He is zesty, earthy Thurgood Marshall, 57, once the country's most successful civil rights lawyer, later a federal judge and now the 33rd U.S. Solicitor General. Looking amused at his own anachronistic costume of striped pants, black vest and swallow-tailed coat, Marshall beamed as Chief Justice Warren intoned: "The court welcomes you."

It is no secret that Marshall's new job is considered a way station toward his becoming the Supreme Court's first Negro Justice....