JIM LEHRER: Retired Supreme Court Justice William Brennan. He died today at the age of 91. Joshua Rosenkrantz clerked for Justice Brennan. He’s now the executive director of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s School of Law. Douglas Kmiec was an assistant attorney general during the Reagan administration; he now teaches law at the University of Notre Dame. And NewsHour regular Stuart Taylor; he covers the Supreme Court for the American Lawyer and Legal Times. Mr. Rosenkrantz, how will you remember Justice Brennan?

JOSHUA ROSENKRANTZ, New York University Law School: I’ll remember him first and foremost as an extraordinarily wonderful human being who just cared so much about everyone who crossed his path, and secondarily as one of the most profound movers in our history, certainly in this century, on the Supreme Court.

JIM LEHRER: Stuart, one of the most profound movers in this century on the U.S. Supreme Court?

STUART TAYLOR, The American Lawyer: I think he was that. He’s widely credited, including by Justice Antonin Scalia, his philosophical opposite, as being the most influential justice of this century and one of the most in history, but that’s not what I suppose I’ll remember him for the most. I was in the–like many of my colleagues–was privileged to visit with him in his chambers. And I’ll remember him as perhaps the most lovable, likeable, charming, humble, delightful, very important person I’ve ever encountered. I remember him saying things like "When you get this damn job, my, nothing you’ve ever done prepares you for it;" things like, I’ve been excited and thrilled every day since I got here, and I’ll be excited and thrilled every day until I leave, things like, see, I didn’t really settle into the liberal mold until I’d been here a few years. I had some surprises. He was–

JIM LEHRER: In other words, he talked like a real person.