Gift
of
Justice
Harry A. Blackmun
The
papers of Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun
comprise approximately 650,000 items. These invaluable
judicial papers meticulously document his tenure
as a highly influential associate justice of the
United States Supreme Court from 1970 until his
retirement in 1994. Blackmun's Supreme Court files
include extensive material regarding the majority
opinion he wrote in the case of Roe v. Wade
on the constitutional status of laws regulating
abortion. The collection also includes material
from his time as United States Court of Appeals
judge for the Eighth Circuit from 1959 to 1970,
some files from his service as legal counsel for
the Mayo Clinic, as well as diaries and day books
chronicling his time at Harvard University and
other high school and family papers.
