The Brains Behind Blackmun

Legal Affairs Magazine ^ | May/June 2005 | By David J. Garrow

[WL-law]

A long read, but fascinating as a further consideration of the fallacy of 'judicial activism'.

I was told, in law school, that my Constitutional Law professor had actually written the Roe v. Wade decision while he was Blackmun's law clerk. This story appears to prove that story true.

[Tabi Katz]

The Brains Behind Blackmun

They must have been behind him, because they sure weren't in his head.

[holdonnow]

His name?

[WL-law]

Randall Bezanson -- mentioned in the article.

[ikka]

Blackmun will ultimately come to be seen as a small man.

[WL-law]

The story mentions an "oral history project" with Blackmun as the subject. I saw, a few years ago, a lenghtly interview with Blackmun on PBS or C-Span, and it must have been the project in question.

No doubt about it, he came across as a shallow, incurious, lightweight, self-centered, petty, conceited little man.

[Noachian]

Harry Blackmun's papers reveal that, more than any justice in memory, he gave his law clerks control over his thinking and writing when he was on the Supreme Court.

This type of abuse of office is bound to happen when a justice is appointed to a life term without accountability to anyone.

More to the point is how many of our aging Supreme Court judges are doing the same thing today?

[Antoninus]

More to the point is how many of our aging Supreme Court judges are doing the same thing today?

This is truly frightening. I heard years ago that the radical homosexuals had specifically targeted the SCOTUS to obtain clerking positions--for just this reason. One of the weakest links was said to be Sandra Day O'Connor. I'd be willing to bet that she has one or several radical homosexual activists clerking for her...

[holdonnow]

Frampton was mentioned as well, which is why I asked.

[holdonnow]

This underscores how outrageous it is for this body to have so much power.

[Antoninus]

Regarding the point I made above, I found this clipping from an article in The Advocate, a radical homosexual publication:

But Joyce Murdoch, coauthor of Courting Justice: Gay Men and Lesbians v. the Supreme Court, insists that impressions about Souter’s personal life are far less critical than the presence of legions of openly gay law graduates who have descended upon the court over the past decade. Murdoch says she can think of four justices who have had at least one out gay clerk work with them.

“Now even the most conservative justices are getting clerk applicants who serve as the head of the Yale Law School gay student group,” says Murdoch, who is also a managing editor of the National Journal. “A disproportionate number of the graduates of top law schools are gay, and it is changing the entire legal profession as well as the court.”

This, combined with what is contained in the main article on this thread, explains partially why our justice system is haywire.

[Antoninus]

This underscores how outrageous it is for this body to have so much power.

Agreed. There's a reason why so many "gay" lawyers are descending upon the Supreme Court seeking clerkships. It's not by accident--they're going where the power is.

[scripter]

Thanks for the ping. Read later.

[MarcusTulliusCicero]

Of all of the Justices, I would wager that Scalia's opinions are pretty much written by him. His personality is stamped throughout them and matches the man you see in interviews and speeches (and in a great old PBS show "Ethics in America".) I'd also guess that Justice Thomas' opinions are truly reflective of him, as well. If any current Justices leave the writing of their opinions to clerks, I'd say Kennedy, O'Connor and Bader-Ginsburg. Kennedy's opinions just seem to be the sort of politically correct tripe you'd get out of a clerk; O'Connor's seem to be assembled by committee, picking and choosing parts of a decision while Bader-Ginsburg's are rather dull and pedestrian (which now that I write that maybe actually mean they were written by her!)

[Last Dakotan]

Useful idiot.

[little jeremiah]

Wow. Ick. Will ping this out tomorrow.

[okie01]

Will ping this out tomorrow.

Deserves broad distribution.

[Malesherbes]

40,000,000 dead American babies. Blackmun is right up there with the great butchers of the 20th century.

[shamusotoole]

I googled George Frampton, one of them. It explaines a lot. FOB apparently.

http://www.nationalcenter.org/dos7122.htm

[ninenot]

Interesting read.

Ping to the Mighty Elk of SCUSA dissent.