Justice Harry A. Blackmun: 1908-1999  His Controversial Opinion
In Roe Vs. Wade Echoes Still  March 05, 1999|By Glen Elsasser,
Washington Bureau.  WASHINGTON — Retired Supreme Court Justice
Harry A. Blackmun, who wrote the divisive 1973 opinion that
established a woman's constitutional right to an abortion, died
early Thursday at Arlington (Va.) Hospital from complications
following hip replacement surgery on Feb. 23. He was 90.  During
his 24 years as a justice, Blackmun, who a former law clerk
described as "a Midwest populist," was a pivotal voice in
shaping the nation's laws on such sensitive issues as
affirmative action, state aid to church-run schools and
immigrants' rights.  But Blackmun's reputation was indelibly set
in the landmark Roe vs. Wade and a companion case, Doe vs.
Bolton, when the court by a vote of 7-2 decriminalized abortion
and sharply restricted state regulation of the procedure.  The
ruling provoked a political backlash in Congress and many state
legislatures, and set in motion an aggre