Introduction

Hello everyone, my name is Harry Blackmun.  I served on the United States Supreme Court for about 25 years.  I was born on November 12, 1908 in Nashville, Illinois.  You may know me as the 98th Supreme Court justice that I became on 1970.  I am popularly known for my landslide ruling in Roe vs. Wade, which protected women’s right to have an abortion.  While I was from a conservative background, I did tend to have some liberal rulings at times.

When I was younger my father was a store manager while my mother was a musician, which led me to a livelong love for music.  I also friended Warren Berger, the 15th US Chief Justice of the US as a young child in school.  I attended the University of Harvard, majoring in mathematics and graduated as summa cum laude in 1929.  I then decided to devote myself to Harvard Law School and graduated in 1932.  I started as an appeals-court clerkship in Minnesota then went on to teach at William Mitchell College of Law then went onto work for a private law firm.  I married my beautiful wife, Dorothy Clark in 1941 and we went on to have three daughters.

In 1950 I went onto follow my love for medicine and work for the Mayo Clinic for about a decade. I was appointed  by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.  I held this position until 1970 when President Nixon was looking for someone to fill the Supreme Court spot that was vacant.  I thankfully enough was recommended by an old friend for the position, Warren Burger, and was sworn in on May 12, 1970.

The stance I take on the first amendment is that the government should take no stance on the separation of church and state.  The main case I am known for is the Roe vs. Wade case where I concluded that the government cannot restrict abortion rights for women.  While I received a lot of criticism for it, at the time i believed it was the correct decision to protect that choice for women, and I still stand by my decision.  The court case I will be reviewing at a later date is that of the Associated Press V. United States.

Sources:

http://www.biography.com/people/harry-blackmun-9214107#synopsis

http://www.oyez.org/justices/harry_a_blackmun

https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/326/1/

http://www.loc.gov/rr/mss/blackmun/blackmun-ex-bib.html

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