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March 4, 1999
Web posted at: 11:31 a.m. EST (1631 GMT)

In this story: Considered conservative in early days Received piles of hate mail RELATED STORIES, SITES

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, author of the controversial Roe vs. Wade decision that legalized abortion in 1973, died Thursday at a Virginia hospital following complications from hip surgery, officials told CNN.

Blackmun, 90, had fallen and broken his hip at his home 10 days ago and underwent hip-replacement surgery the following day. He died at Arlington Hospital in Arlington, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, officials said.

President Clinton said Thursday he "saw up close Harry Blackmun's intense passion -- his passion for the welfare of the American people, for defending our liberties and our institutions, for moving us forward together."

"In 24 years on the Supreme Court he served with compassion, distinction, and honor," Clinton said. "Every decision and every dissent was firmly grounded in the Constitution he revered and his uncanny feel for the human element that lies just beneath the surface of all serious legal argument."

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-South Dakota) said the nation lost a judicial giant with the death of Blackmun.

"We lost an extraordinary judge, an extraordinary member of the Supreme Court, someone who has had a profound impact on this country and its legal system," Daschle said.

Blackmun is considered one of the most controversial figures in the court's history.

The Harvard-educated Minnesotan was President Richard Nixon's third choice to fill the court vacancy left by Justice Abe Fortas who resigned in 1970. Nixon called Blackmun a "strict constructionist," a term Nixon aides used to describe a judge who leaned toward interpreting existing law rather than creating new law.

After a unanimous confirmation in the U.S. Senate, Blackmun joined the Supreme Court at age 61 and served 24 years, creating a legacy that set him far apart from where Nixon hoped he'd be.

Considered conservative in early days

During his early days, Blackmun was considered a staunch conservative. By the time he retired, the life-long Republican was considered one of the court's most liberal justices.

It was the court's politics that changed over the years rather than his own, Blackmun told his friends.

In his decisions, Blackmun generally voted against expanding the rights of criminal suspects but cast liberal votes in cases pitting the right of individuals against those of government. He believed in a strict line of separation between church and state, and was staunch supporter of the First Amendment.

But it was his 1973 opinion written for the decision legalizing abortion that solidified Blackmun as a lightning rod of controversy for one of the nation's hottest ongoing topics.

Received piles of hate mail

He received more than 60,000 pieces of hate mail because of the decision.

"Butcher of Dachau, murderer, Pontius Pilate, King Herod. You name it, it's all in there," Blackmun once said of the things people called him. "On the other hand, some of the letters I received, without any question, are some of the most wonderful letters anyone could ever imagine."

He insisted on reading every letter.

"I want to know what the people who wrote are thinking," he once said.

Harry Andrew Blackmun was born in 1908 in Nashville, Illinois, but was raised in St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota. He and former Chief Justice Warren Burger first met in kindergarten. When Blackmun joined the Supreme Court, they became known as the Minnesota Twins.

After graduating from Harvard, he taught and practiced law before President Dwight Eisenhower appointed him to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals in 1959.

He left the appellate bench in 1970 to join the nation's highest court.

In a 1983 interview with The Associated Press on the eve of the 10th anniversary of his Roe vs. Wade opinion, Blackmun repeated softly and slowly "author of the abortion decision."

"We all pick up tabs," he told the reporter. "I'll carry this one to my grave."

Blackmun is survived by his wife, Dorothy, and three daughters.

Correspondent Charles Bierbauer and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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