Harry Blackmun

Harold Andrew Blackmun lived from November 12, 1908 to March 4, 1999 and was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1970 to 1994. Appointed by President Richard Nixon, Blackmun ultimately became one of the most liberal justices on the Court and is best known as the author of the majority opinion in Roe v. Wade. Raised in Saint Paul, Minnesota, he graduated from Harvard Law School in 1932 and practiced law in the Twin Cities, representing clients such as the Mayo Clinic, before President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed him to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in 1959. Nixon successfully nominated him to the Supreme Court to replace Associate Justice Abe Fortas. Blackmun and his close friend Chief Justice Warren Burger were often called the Minnesota Twins, though Blackmun drifted from Burger over their tenure, and he retired during President Bill Clintons administration, succeeded by Stephen Breyer. Beyond Roe v. Wade, his notable majority opinions include Bates v. State Bar of Arizona and Bigelow v. Commonwealth of Virginia, and he wrote dissents in Furman v. Georgia, Bowers v. Hardwick and DeShaney v. Winnebago County.