Kendrick Meek: “Justice Brennan served on the Supreme Court for 34 years, from 1956 through 1990. By the general public he is remembered…”

“Justice Brennan served on the Supreme Court for 34 years, from 1956 through 1990. By the general public he is remembered for his concern in protecting the rights of individuals who were not powerful. I will speak of that in a moment. But first I want to speak about him as a person. I never met the Justice, but I think I would have liked him as a person. Let me give you one anecdote about him as a person. His office had a manual, and one item in the manual concerned the Justice's coffee. It said that every morning one clerk should prepare a cup of decaffeinated coffee with no milk or sugar and give it to him at 9 a.m. Every day he would say 'wonderful.' One day the office coffee machine broke, and so the Justice and his clerks went to the cafeteria to get morning coffee. The Justice poured himself a cup of caffeinated coffee and put milk and sugar in it. His clerks said they thought he liked his coffee decaf black with no sugar. And he replied, 'no. I always take it this way.' He had never told anyone in his office for more than 8 years about how he really wanted his coffee.”