Blackmun Papers

[Lupu]

Nina Totenberg reported on NPR this morning that the Blackmun 
papers reveal that Kennedy did exactly the same thing in 1992 in 
Planned Parenthood v. Casey, in which (she claimed) he was 
originally the fifth vote for an opinion that would have overruled Roe, 
but switched and joined with Souter and O'Connor in the now-
famous troika opinion that preserved Roe with respect to abortion 
prohibitions.  If all these "Kennedy switch"  stories are true, is there 
any wonder about why Justice Scalia sounded so angry in his 
dissents in those cases?  


On 4 Mar 2004 at 10:29, Stuart BUCK wrote:

> The NY Times article on the Blackmun papers reveals something
> interesting about Lee v. Weisman:
> 
> http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/04/politics/04BLAC.html?pagewanted=2&hp
> 
> One of the surprises in the papers is the revelation that Justice
> Kennedy changed his mind midway through another major case in 1992.
> That case, Lee v. Weisman, challenged the constitutionality of
> clergy-led prayers at public school graduations.
> 
> Assigned by Chief Justice Rehnquist to write the opinion for a 5-to-4
> majority upholding the prayers, Justice Kennedy informed Justice
> Blackmun, who was one of the four dissenters, that after several
> months "my draft looked quite wrong." His new draft, declaring the
> prayers unconstitutional, became the opinion for the new 5-to-4
> majority.
> 
> _________________________________________________________________
> Learn how to help protect your privacy and prevent fraud online at
> Tech Hacks & Scams. http://special.msn.com/msnbc/techsafety.armx
> 
> _______________________________________________
> To post, send message to Religionlaw at lists.ucla.edu
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see
> http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw
> 



Ira C. ("Chip") Lupu
F. Elwood & Eleanor Davis Professor of Law 
The George Washington University Law School 
2000 H St., NW
Washington D.C 20052

(202) 994-7053

ICLUPU at main.nlc.gwu.edu
ICLUPU at law.gwu.edu