alsoss blackmun like to write some of his stuff in longhand that way. those of us who practice law have computers that pretty well replicate things almost instantaneously, but that was the style that he had, and he was particular about his opinions, from what i'm told. he was a man who kept everything. i have read recently that his archive in the library of congress is the largest judicial archive in terms of its sheer volume. except for that of justice douglas, who served a longer time than justice blackmun. he was a man he was meticulous. he kept everything. he kept good records, very careful about the way he wrote things. when you readnk his opinions. the case was argued the term prior to its release. it was one of those rare cases apparently for the supreme court , after hearing the original argument, decided at the end of their term, and the terms and in year,y june or may of the if a case is not decided, sometimes it's carried over to the next term of court and re-argued. that's what happened in roe v. wade ring that summer. blackmun came back to

justice blackmun came back to rochester to visit.spent time in the library of the mayo clinic doing research on issues that interested him in terms of viability and things of that sort. he perhaps may have talked to folks in the rochester community who were physicians and had knowledge of these things. i don't know if harry blackmun was considered to be a person with medical knowledge but certainly working for the clinic a number of years. circuit court judge, he would have been exposed to a lot of information. that claimse story he came back and spent some time researching medical issues that bothered him that were on his mind prior to the case being argued. the principal argument and role -- whether there is some form of that atutional right person has that basically for fromthe government interfering with a decision by that individual to terminate a pregnancy. decision,ginal roe the majority of the court decided that there was a constitutional right to privacy which basically for bade -- forbade the state from regulating a decisio

it was justice blackmun. justice harry blackmun wrote the decision. the book is called "becoming justice blackmun." a journalist for the "new york times, who is now a professor at yale, professor at wrote this book. it is about how it is that he came to write this decision. one of the things interesting about justice blackmun is before coming a supreme court justice had been the lead counsel for the mayo clinic in minnesota. he was a doctor's lawyer. he was used to malpractice suits. the summer while he was trying to think through the decision, he went back to minnesota and looked through reams of medical data about pregnancy. as i get to the decision, you will see the training at play. his long-standing interest in medicine at play. within that decision, he kind of mimics the language of those other cases. he says abortion restrictions early in a pregnancy violate a constitutional right to privacy. it looks very familiar to us by now. that is what griswold sounded like to us. that is what eisenstadt sounded like. he is extending that rationale to abo

supreme court justice harry blackmun spent a decade working there, and we learned about his ties to the area in his role in roe v. wade. >> this has to do with the controversial case of roe v. wade. deskcase landed on my early in my years here.

. >> getting to the court, your predecessor justice harry blackmun told you quote, you will find this an unusual assignment. talk about the understatement of the century, you have, haven't you? and a good one. >> yes, the virtue of it, particularly as you get older is you really have to put forth your best every day. you can't just say relax and let things slide. you really have to, and that's good and it calls for whatever youhave to give . and the other thing about it which david souter told me which is true is your always on duty . that's a little stressful sometimes. like having grandchildren around all the time. we love, but there they are, don't let the murder each other. and so it's, you're on duty. but it's very rewarding. it's rewarding. >> you ever get rather lonely on the court? would you like a few extra members of in court? it has been proposed lately that we expand the numbers of members of the court from 9 to 11 or 13, what you think of that? >> i think nine is fine. i'm not speaking about anybody's proposal but i've discovered that nine seems to work and the massachuse

. >> during that summer, justice blackmun came back to visit, in the library of the mayo clinic doing some research issues that interested him in terms of liability. rochester toit ibm see how this 108-year-old company is changing. 1956. broke ground in our original mission was manufacturing. we manufactured punchcard products, tabulators. >> we begin our feature with a visit to the mayo attic -- clinic. clinic is an american institution. it is a part of our country. it is the first and largest multispecialty group practice of medicine. it is a big, formal term but it means specialists working together in a highly organized way to voting -- the way devoting stuff for a purpose of serving the names of each individual patient. this is a model the family developed with the franciscan sisters here that has expanded and grown to other medical centers and has welcomed patients from around the world for more than 150 years. this is heritage hall, the museum that was established with a generous gift from john and william matthews. they are loyal patients, and they had a unique vision. they wa