Harry A. Blackmun : the outsider justice / Tinsley E. Yarbrough.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Yarbrough, Tinsley E., 1941-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Blackmun, Harry A. (Harry Andrew), 1908-1999.

Blackmun, Harry A.

United States. Supreme Court--Biography.

United States.

Judges--United States--Biography.

Judges.

Physical Description:

xiii, 397 p., [8] p. of plates : ill.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2008.

Summary:

Harry A. Blackmun: The Outsider Justice is Tinsley E. Yarbrough's penetrating account of one of the most outspoken and complicated figures on the Supreme Court. As a justice, Blackmun stood at the pinnacle of the American judiciary. Yet when he took his seat on the Court, Justice Blackmun felt "almost desperate," overwhelmed with feelings of self-doubt and inadequacy over the immense responsibilities before him. Remarkably, though, that very self-image instilled in the justice, throughout his career, a deep empathy for society's most vulnerable outsiders--women faced with unwanted pregnancies, homosexuals subjected to archaic laws, and ultimately, death-row inmates. To those who saw his career as the constitutional odyssey of a conservative jurist gradually transformed into a champion of the underdog, Blackmun had a ready answer: he had not changed; the Court and the issues before them changed. The justice's identification with the marginalized members of society arguably provides the overarching key to that consistency. Thoroughly researched, engagingly written, Harry A. Blackmun: The Outsider Justice offers an in-depth, revelatory portrait of one of the most intriguing jurists ever to sit on the Supreme Court. Relying on in-depth archival material, in addition to numerous interviews with Blackmun's former clerks, Yarbrough here presents the definitive biography of the great justice, ultimately providing an illuminating window into the inner-workings of the modern Supreme Court.

Contents:

Dayton's Bluff to Harvard

Minnesota lawyer

Circuit judge

"A ton of bricks"

The chambers

The Minnesota twins

Roe and beyond

Liberal icon

Changing the guard

Citizen Blackmun.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (p. [351]-384) and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

0198032382

9780198032380

OCLC:

476242171