Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, Marshall received an Associate of Arts degree from Los Angeles City College in 1956.

[4] The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and later the U.S. Supreme Court found that the City of Los Angeles violated the First Amendment through its procedure relative to the South Central Los Angeles Cable Television Franchise specifically by depriving Preferred Communications Inc. access to the public utility lines.

In sum, twelve senior members of the bench superseded Marshall's dismissal of the case; three judges from the 9th Circuit[6] and nine justices in the U.S. Supreme Court.

While it was the opinion of Supreme Court Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist that: "the City of Los Angeles was obligated to allow [Preferred Communications Inc.] use of its physical capacity to further speech," the Plaintiff(s) were deprived a jury trial to determine damages for roughly a decade.

Between 1983 and 1992, legal hardship and economic disenfranchisement were the product of continual delays; further, no public hearing was ever granted to plaintiff(s) in their effort to assert their first amendment rights under the U.S. constitution.