European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 2, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes Friday March 2,1990 James j. Kilpatric justices sign in for supreme a what Shay line a it was said of Harold Ross the Laic great editor of the new yorker that in Reading a manuscript he once came across a passing reference to  in the margin Ross scrawled a question Quot who he Quot a poll just released by the National lavs journal brings the anecdote Back to mind. When it Conics 1o knowledge of the . Supreme court the american people evidently draw one vast encompassing Blank. The poll taken in january. Found that almost 60 percent of the respondents could not name even one member of the court. Is this astonishing probably not for no one Ever went broke by overestimating the political knowledge of the people. In the dim Light of the poll it occurs to me that a mild Public service might be performed by a few introductions. The nine members of the court collectively Are the most powerful individuals in our whole political Structure. You ought to meet them. Start with William Brennanjr. Only 3 percent of the respondents Ever heard of him. Who he the old gentleman a he w ill he 84 years old in april a has been serving on the court for More than 33 years. As the court s most influential Liberal last summer he wrote the court s opinion upholding Flag burning As an exercise in free speech he is heard most often in stinging dissent. These Peppery deliverance belie his surpassing Good humor. Brennan generally has a twinkle in his Eye. Next in line is Byron White of Colorado. Nominated to the court by president Kennedy in 1962. To judge from the poll More people probably would recognize him As  White than As Justice while. He is remembered As the University of Colorado s All time Star As student and athlete combined. He was Phi Beta Kappa a Rhodes scholar who played professional football briefly for both Pittsburgh and Detroit. At 72, he still has the athlete s build and a quarterback s Eye. A member of the court s conservative bloc a most of the time a he wrote a major civil rights opinion last term in the alaskan Cannery Case. . Kopsk to but Statt less Luke up wow i we is  of life 7 Justice Thurgood Marshall dissented in the Cannery Case As he has dissented so often in recent years. Last term the 81-year-old Marshall was on the losing Side in More than a third of the cases that were heard. The first Black to make it to the supreme court he was nominated by Lyndon Johnson in 1967. On the Bench he has some of the aspects of a soldering Volcano a a huge Lump of a Man perpetually weary but capable of fiery eruptions. Marshall has not been assigned a significant majority opinion in years. Next in line is Harry Blackmun 81, named to the court by president Nixon in 1970. Surprisingly the poll found that Only 2 percent of the respondents could identify him for he wrote the courts majority opinion in the landmark abortion Case of Roe is. Wade in 1973. Color him Gray. Now and then in dissent he gets off a bitterly quotable line but he is the slowest writer on the court and wrote Only 12 majority opinions last term. The chief Justice William Rehnquist 65, succeeded Warren Earl Burger who succeeded Earl Warren. Both Burger and Warren with their lofty brows and magisterial bearing looked like chief justices. Rehnquist has been likened to Ichabod Crane. He is a fairly solemn fellow not Given to phrase making but he is Well liked and he gives himself such Tough assignments As the Webster abortion Case last year. John Paul Stevens will be 70 in april. He was Gerald Fords Only nominee to the High court. He is an interesting fellow a a licensed Pilot a top flight Bridge player a but he has not made much of a Mark on the court. He gets Many of the cases we reporters ignore As a lawyer  in dissent he can display a biting wit. Sandra Day of Connor will be 60 on March 26. A woman of much personal Charm she has become a bulwark of the conservative bloc. Last term she wrote the controversial opinion nullifying a racially preferential set aside ordinance in Richmond a. Antonin Scalia 54 on March 11, and Anthony Kennedy 53, Are Reagan nominees. Scalia is volatile Lively a brisk questioner from the Bench by Odds the most skillful writer on the court. Kennedy has been on the court for barely two years but he has provided a reliable conservative vote in major cases. There you have them. When next you hear their names ask not a who they a these Are the nine mortals who hold the immortal Constitution in their hands. C Universal press Syndicate William j. Buckley  exuberant quest for life a biggest firecrackers Quot am or the big party in  i wrote at the time Quot the guests were left deliberating the question of the taste of the whole extravaganza concerning which there is Only this to say Malcolm Forbes is. Well Malcolm Forbes. It happens that a i like him and b 1 Admire him. This does not mean that i any More than the 600 others who were there assuming we disposed of equivalent resources would dispose of them in exactly that Way to Mark our 70th birthdays. Quot but the thing about Malcolm Forbes is that he is the epitome of exuberance. He loves his motorcycles his Magazine his balloons his Chateaux his sons his yachts his Faberge collection his toy soldiers his country with an Chibi to Monistic passion. He cannot Bear for anyone not to know the measure of his elation Over the trifles and substances that surround him. He wanted in his Tangier venture simply to explode the biggest firecracker in the history of recent celebrations. And did  one month ago. Malcolm Forbes was my guest on Quot firing line a which program i had designated to explore a the a difference Between Pride and  within five minutes i had privately concluded that a Malcolm Forbes was going to feign innocence of that distinction or that b in fact he was innocent of the distinction. I incline to the latter explanation since nobody Ever said that Malcolm Forbes was less than very Bright. He was very Bright but he was also an innocent. And he was this in a Way this casual Friend found both endearing and defensible. Last fall he published a Book in which he recounted in effervescent text and voluptuous photography the Narra live of his secular passions. There the Reader could see dozens of pictures of his sons growing up. Or linger Over his collection of Faberge eggs. He would Tell you Why he thought motorbikes the supreme Means of travel on the ground. Another chapter describes the supreme Means of travelling in the air which is by balloon. Another the incomparable pleasure of travelling by sea preferably on his private yacht which had just completed a trip around the Pacific Ocean. And his excitement Over the splendor of Fiji and his Home there yields Only to the needs to describe the beauties and comforts and allure of his Home in Tangier which however had to make room to describe the wonders of his estate in new Jersey and by the Way his ranch in Colorado. I last spotted him on can a few Days before he died he was preparing to go to London to take part in a Bridge tournament. He was telling the interviewer that to retire from his Job As editor of Forbes would be unthinkable so much did he look Forward to the work he found to do every morning. Malcolm Forbes was engaged throughout his lifetime in what i think of As acts of Requital. He was the quintessential Man who could not Bear to keep to himself the Good joke he had just heard. If Felix Mendelssohn could have conscripted the people of Europe to his ends in 1830, head have used his Power to bring them the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. So it was with Forbes. No preacher has appeared More frequently on television than Malcolm Forbes who Felt an evangelists Balling to Bear witness to his enthusiasms. At Princeton he was voted the person who. Had contributed most to his class of 1941. His conventional contributions were formally acknowledged in later years he was named philanthropist of the year. His principal contribution was in minting that blend of hedonism and hard work that justifies capitalism not Only As a productive mechanism but As a vehicle for wholesome pleasures. One recalls too individual exertions. I declined out of necessity i explained i would be in Washington doing television arriving Back Only at 7 at Laguar Dia an invitation to join him and others on his yacht for dinner last Spring. The Telephone rang he wanted to know just when i would touch Down at Laguardia a a in la Send my helicopter for you a when i accepted his offer of the helicopter ride to his boat in mid passage i did so absolutely secure in the knowledge that he was getting even More pleasure than i would get from the transaction a always the Ideal distribution of satisfactions. You do understand about him done to you when you viewed his faberg6 eggs you were doing him a favor. I can to think of anyone quite like him let alone anyone who can fit in his shoes. C Universal press Syndicate the opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons on this Page represent those of the authors and Are in no Way to be considered As representing the views of the stars and stripes or the United states government