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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: T L Comiskey who wrote (38766)	3/4/2004 1:14:14 PM
From: lurqer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

I see we were simultaneously reading 'bout the 9-11 families. Here's a "blast from the past". When U.S. abortion rights hung by a thread As lawyers and court watchers have long suspected, in 1992 the U.S. Supreme Court came within a hair of effectively overturned legal abortion, before Justice Anthony M. Kennedy got cold feet and swung the vote the other way. Internal notes in the papers of late Justice Harry A. Blackmun provide a glimpse of the secretive dealings that led to the court's ruling in Planned Parenthood v. Casey that year. Judge Blackmun's extensive records from 24 years on the court were opened Thursday, the fifth anniversary of his death. His paper legacy brought scholars and others to the Library of Congress' vast reading room Thursday to rifle through boxes containing the documents. The voluminous files contain draft after draft of the Casey ruling with his handwritten notes in the margins, sometimes agreeing with other justices and sometimes looking for ways to change their minds. The files also contain memos from his law clerks suggesting changes or strategies that might persuade more justices to join his views. There was nothing immediately apparent in the correspondence or other documents to show why Judge Kennedy changed his mind. Judge Blackmun's notes show that Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist led a five-justice majority to overrule Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that legalized abortion. The four other justices voting with Judge Rehnquist were Byron White, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Judge Kennedy. Judge Rehnquist himself was to write the majority opinion. But, unbeknownst to him, Judge Kennedy was having second thoughts, and agreed with Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and David Souter, to a compromise position. The Casey ruling carved out a middle ground that upheld a woman's right to abortion largely free from state regulation. The case was argued in April and Judge Rehnquist was at work on his majority ruling, when Kennedy sent a note to Judge Blackmun. “I need to see you as soon as you have a few moments. I want to tell you about a new development in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. It should come as welcome news.” Judge Blackmun – who had written the Roe ruling 18 years before, and had guarded it from previous attack from conservative justices – picked up a pink memo pad and scribbled, “Roe Sound.” The notes show that the court was not unaware of the case's political implications. At one point, one of Judge Blackmun's law clerks wrote that the three centrist justices could pay a price for disagreeing with the White House view on abortion. It's been more than a decade since intimate details of the court's inner workings were revealed in Justice Thurgood Marshall's papers, which elicited bitter criticism within the court because the papers include secret memos and unpublished draft opinions in controversial cases. Most current justices are expected to protect their files, and any embarrassing secrets they might hold, long after their deaths. Judge Blackmun, like Judge Marshall, served 24 years on the court, retiring in his 80s in 1994. He accumulated far more correspondence than Judge Marshall. The appointee of President Nixon “took copious notes and never threw away any of his papers,” Washington lawyer David Frederick said. His authorship of Roe v. Wade brought him more than 60,000 angry letters and repeated threats on his life. globeandmail.com lurqer