Harry Blackmun

Harry Andrew Blackmun (November 12, 1908 – March 4, 1999) was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1970 to 1994. He is best known as the author of the majority opinion in the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, overturning laws restricting abortion in the United States.

Early years on the Supreme Court

Blackmun, a lifelong Republican, was generally expected to adhere to a conservative interpretation of the constitution. The Court's Chief Justice at the time, Warren Burger, who had been a long-time friend of Blackmun's and for whom Blackmun served as best man at his wedding, had recommended Blackmun for the job to President Richard M. Nixon. The two were often referred to as the "Minnesota Twins" (a reference to the baseball team, the Minnesota Twins) because of their common history in Minnesota and because they so often voted together. Indeed, in 1972 Blackmun joined Burger and the other two Nixon appointees to the Court in dissenting from the Furman v. Georgia decision that invalidated all capital punishment laws then in force in the United States, and in 1976 he voted to reinstate the death penalty in 1976's Gregg v. Georgia, even the "barbaric" mandatory death penalty statutes, although in both instances he indicated his personal opinion of its shortcomings as a policy. Blackmun, however, insisted his political opinions should have no bearing on the death penalty's constitutionality, and dissented in the cases consolidated with Gregg that invalidated mandatory death penalty statutes.

Related Topics:
Republican - Constitution - Warren Burger - Best man - Richard M. Nixon - Minnesota Twins - Furman v. Georgia - Capital punishment - Gregg v. Georgia

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Initially Blackmun was slightly less conservative than Warren Burger. In the 1971-72 term he voted with Burger in over 90 % of the cases and William Rehnquist in slightly under 90 % of the cases. He was even slightly more conservative than Lewis Powell in their first year on the court together.

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