William Brennan

FOR SUSAN Finkelstein, sex and baseball have been intertwined in "dark and wonderful ways" since she knew they both existed. Finkelstein was soaking in the bathtub years ago. Pitcher Larry Christenson was on her mind. Things happened, OK? "I'm kind of an open person," she admits. But she's not a hooker. Yesterday, the state Superior Court overturned her March 2010 attempted prostitution conviction for allegedly offering sex to an undercover cop for tickets to the 2009 Phillies-Yankees World Series following her ill-conceived Craigslist post.

The Superior Court of Pennsylvania on Tuesday reversed the attempted prostitution conviction of a woman who was famously tried for trying to trade sex for Phillies World Series tickets. A jury in March 2010 found Susan Finkelstein, 45, of West Philadelphia, guilty of the third-degree misdemeanor after clearing her of the more serious charge of prostitution, lodged against her after she placed a racy online ad seeking tickets to the Phillies-Yankees series in 2009. She was sentenced to one year of probation and 100 hours of community service.

It is not enough to remember Justice William J. Brennan Jr. for the breadth and quality of the 1,360 opinions he authored as a member of the nation's highest court - although those opinions marked him as the dominating judicial figure of the last third of a century. It is not enough to remember Justice Brennan, who died Thursday, for his liberal legacy - although his expansive interpretation of the Constitution broadened forever the American concept of personal freedom and equal rights.

William Brennan, legal scholar, judge and politician, is leaving the Supreme Court, and we are all the poorer. We are poorer in large part because Justice Brennan's careful cobbling of landmark decisions so they would have the greatest possible consensus is in the finest tradition of politics and of principled checks and balances within government. Brennan's charm and brilliance were as important when they helped get unanimous 9-0 verdicts on school desegregation and the limits of presidential power as they were when he wrote eloquently on free speech.