Blackmun Clerks Had Too Much Power, Says Historian

The Legal Times-Law.com ^ | 4-18-05 | Tony Mauro

[stan_sipple]

The late Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun ceded so much of his authority to his law clerks during his 24-year tenure that it amounts to "a scandalous abdication of judicial responsibility," Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Garrow asserts in a magazine article out today.

“Will we find someday that Justice Scalia's file on Bush v. Gore reflects the same partisanship among the clerks that we see in Blackmun's files in Planned Parenthood v. Casey?" Garrow asked. "I hope we don't."

It was in the (Casey v Planned Parenthood) file that some of the most stinging remarks are made by Blackmun's clerks. Clerk Stephanie Dangel, now a lawyer in Pennsylvania, referred to Justice Antonin Scalia as "evil Nino" and worried that even though Casey would preserve Blackmun's Roe v. Wade decision declaring a woman's right to an abortion, the ruling "may have the effect of removing abortion from the political agenda just long enough to ensure the re-election of President [George H.W.] Bush."

[stan_sipple]

This is what the pointy headed Ivy League Law Professors mean by "growing" at the High Court: having your liberal indoctinated clerks highjack work you should be doing, hear that Justice Kennedy?

[brivette]

“Will we find someday that Justice Scalia's file on Bush v. Gore reflects the same partisanship among the clerks that we see in Blackmun's files in Planned Parenthood v. Casey?" Garrow asked. "I hope we don't."

You wish. Scalia is brilliant.

[Darth Reagan]

I'd sure like to read the whole article and I don't mind mandatory registration, but when they want so much detail, it just makes me wish you'd pasted the whole article!

[stan_sipple]

free link, registration is free also

http://www.law.com/jsp/scm/PubArticleSCM.jsp?id=1113827712019

[lepton]

bookmark bump

[stan_sipple]

Liberal law clerks on the United States Supreme Court running the country, democracy in action

[ikka]

So much for Blackmun being seen as a brilliant legal mind.

[Capriole]

Yep, no one could think of Blackmun as a "brilliant legal mind" who had given a fair reading to Levin's Men in Black. I recommend it.

[stan_sipple]

According to NY Times, etc blackmun turned brillant as soon as Roe v Wade came out

[stan_sipple]

wonder whether we will find Ruthie ginzu berg has been pulling the strings on our other dim bulbs Kennedy, O Connor, Souter