A Glimpse Inside the Third Branch

Today the voluminous papers of Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun became public, five years after his death. Early review of those papers - 1500 boxes of them - contain some fascinating insight into the workings of the Court. Among the tidbits discovered so far, Roe v. Wade was nearly overturned in 1992, but a last minute vote change by Justice Anthony Kennedy in Planned Parenthood v. Casey swung the 5-4 split in favor of letting Roe stand.

The New York Times has an in depth story about Blackmun's papers the covers his entire term on the bench.