Liberal Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackman in a pretty bad light

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.

The article in Legal Affairs, based on research done by Garrow in Blackmun's papers released last year at the Library of Congress, recounts numerous cases in which memoranda from clerks and other documents show an outsized influence and assertive tone by clerks that Garrow says is unmatched by other justices whose papers are available. . . .

" In the 1990 Cruzan right-to-die case, Garrow quotes a memo in which a law clerk tells Blackmun she "does not really know" his views -- an indication, says Garrow, that "by the spring of 1990, he was giving his law clerks little explicit direction in the court's most notable cases." . . .

Clerk Stephanie Dangel . . . 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." . . .

Dangel told Legal Times she had mixed feelings about the release of the memos, which she said she wrote in part to cheer Blackmun up. . . .

This is a very long article and I suggest that you read the whole thing, but some of these quotes are pretty shocking. Dangel's explanation that she made these last statements to 'cheer Blackmun up" are hardly reassuring. New York Times reporter Linda Greenhouse's forthcoming book doesn't come off very well.