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Harry Blackmun Was No Bigot, Says George Mason Professor

By Eric L. Lipman

In an interesting article posted to the Social Science Research Network today, Ross E. Davies, Professor of Law at the George Mason University School of Law and Editor-in-Chief of The Green Bag, critically analyzes a yarn told about Justice Harry Blackman in Bob Woodward and Scott Armstrong's legendary book The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court.

In The Brethren, Woodward and Armstrong maintain that in Blackmun's first draft of his famous ode to baseball, found in the introductory paragraphs to the High Court's opinion in Flood v. Kuhn, Blackmun omitted any reference to African-American players until prompted to include them by fellow Justice, Thurgood Marshall.

Using the newly-accessible archives of U.S. Supreme Court Justices Blackmun and William Brennan, however, Davies establishes that the tale is not true: Baseball greats Satchel Paige, Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella all appeared in Blackmun's first draft of the opinion.

Likewise interesting, Davies reports that while he sought out Woodward and Armstrong's comments on these findings, no reaction from the duo was received.

Davies' complete article is accessible here.

Full post as published by Within the Scope on June 20, 2008 (boomark / email).