The Blackmun Files

Slate: The odd thing about the personal quirks, rivalries, and friendships revealed by the Blackmun papers is that they make explicit what most court-watchers already know but don't say: that Justice Souter is painfully shy, that Chief Justice Rehnquist cares a bit too much about his official title, that Justice Kennedy sometimes switches sides at the 11th hour, that election-year politics factor into court decisions. And that the justices and their clerks may have enjoyed the screening of dirty movies in the high-court basement a bit too much.

Findlaw Writ: Former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, Edward Lazarus, discusses the Real Story Behind the Release of Justice Blackmun's Papers and Tapes: What They Reveal, and Do Not Reveal, About the Man, and the Court.