Justice Blackmun Remembered for His ‘Humane Judicial Vision’
Harry A. Blackmun was eulogized Tuesday as a man with a “conscientious, humane judicial vision” who sought to understand the people whose lives his Supreme Court opinions would affect.
First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, Atty. Gen. Janet Reno and humorist Garrison Keillor joined Blackmun’s family, friends and Supreme Court colleagues at a memorial service for the retired justice who died Thursday at age 90.
Justice Stephen G. Breyer, who succeeded Blackmun on the nation’s highest court in 1994, said he “made a direct, conscious effort to reach out and understand those whose life experience was different from his own.”
His accomplishments during 24 years on the court “reveal a vision, a conscientious, humane judicial vision, which he applied in one area of the law after another,” including equal protection of the sexes and races, Breyer said.
Blackmun got tens of thousands of letters after he wrote the 1973 Roe vs. Wade opinion that legalized abortion nationwide.
One very long letter urged Blackmun to resign, Breyer said, and the justice’s reply was succinct: “Dear Sir, No. Sincerely, Harry A. Blackmun.”
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