Becoming Justice Blackmun

In BECOMING JUSTICE BLACKMUN, Linda Greenhouse provides an insider`s account of how the Supreme Court works and of the evolution of Associate Justice Harry Blackmun`s thinking on major issues and cases before the court, including Roe v. Wade, whose history-making decision he authored. Appointed by Nixon because of his conservative decisions, Blackmun was later seen as liberal, and by the time of his retirement in 1994, he opposed the death penalty on constitutional grounds. Of special interest is the story of Blackmun`s relationship with Chief Justice Warren Burger, a grade-school friend, which went from a warm friendship to a very discordant one, primarily due to Supreme Court politics. For the writing of this book, Greenhouse was granted unprecedented first access to Blackmun`s personal and public papers. A New York Times Notable Book of the Year for 2005. Copyright (C) Muze Inc. 2005. For personal use only. All rights reserved.