Nixon's biggest screw-up

The title of this post is not referring to the Watergate scandal but rather the appointment of Harry Blackmun to the U.S. Supreme Court. Thomas Roeser has an article today, Blackmun's slide into the liberal cauldron which examines how Blackmun changed from a fairly reliable conservative vote on the court to authoring the worst piece of legislating from the bench (Roe v.Wade). While the article has some discussion of the court case which defined Blackmun's despicable legacy the more interesting part is examination of his relationship with Chief Justice Warren Burger. I previously knew that Burger had recommended Blackmun to Nixon and vouched for his conservatism. However, I had no idea how close they had been growing up. They met in kindergarden and Blackmun was the best man at Burger's wedding. However, their time on the court together strained the relationship to the point that Blackmun didn't even attend Burger's funeral.