so for his third try nixon chose harry blackman because he was seen as so uncontroversial he would be hard for anybody to vote against. >> judge blackman made a good first impression and the senators will vote to decide his fate and barring the unexpected his nomination should sail through. thus far no one has even asked to testify against him. but the unexpected aural has occurred twice, so most senators still are not committing themselves. >> the find a super uncontroversial guy strategy worked for that nomination. harry blackman's nomination to court was unanimously approved by the u.s. senate. on june 9, 1970, he was sworn in to the supreme court. and he was seen specifically as the most middle of the road nonoffensive guaranteed noncontroversial guy to stick in that spot, justice blackman would go on just a couple of years later to write one of the most controversial u.s. supreme court opinions ever. >> the court said in a 7-2 decision that in the first three months of pregnancy only the woman and her physician may decide whether she may have an abortion. in the second three mont

this is harry blackman. he was from minnesota, conservative lawyer, a judge first appointed to the federal bench by dwight eisenhower. he became richard nixon's second apointment to the united states supreme court. but blackman was not the first pick. the first picks got dissected during the confirmation process. both of them were rejected by the senate which was a big and embarrassing blow for nixon. so, for his third try, nixon chose blackman because he was seen as so uncontroversial he would be hard for anybody to vote against. >> judge blackman made a good first impression and the senators will vote to decide his fate and barring the unexpected his nomination should sail through. thus far no one has even asked to testify against him. but the unexpected aural has occurred twice, so most senators still are not committing themselves. >> we find a super uncontroversial guy strategy worked for that nomination. harry blackman's nomination to court was unanimously approved by the u.s. senate. on june 9, 1970, h

you learn about the art of judging from clerking for the detail oriented and particular justice harry blackman? >> i learned a great deal, of course. both from clerking for justice blackman and seeing the different approaches ar es arou court. now, i will say at the time i clerked at the supreme court, the so-called originalism plain meeting approach had not yet carried the day with as many people. wasn't really until justice scalia came or so when that became more popular. justice blackman goes all the way back to the fact that he came to the law as a mathematics major. remember? his undergraduate degree from harvard was in math. he was a summa cum laude awarder of that degree. awardee of that degree. and i think that it carried over into his approach to law and it's something that i've thought a lot about. he was very comfortable with the scientific method. he was very comfortable with working from the ground up, from the facts up and coming up with a rule of law that was solidly based on the facts. he didn't like a top down, i already figured out what the categories are, i'm going to shove

this is harry blackman, and he was from minnesota, conservative lawyer, a judge first appointed to theight eisenhower. he became richard nixon's second appointment to the united states supreme court. but blackman was not nixon's first choice for the job. nixon's first two picks had pro-segregation records

this is harry blackman.ta, conservative lawyer, a judge first appointed to the federal bench by dwight eisenhower. he became richard nixon's second apointment to the united states supreme court. but blackman was not the first pick. the first p g