THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS has just made public the accumulated papers of the late Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, who served from 1971 to 1994. More than a half-million items fill 1,576 boxes. For obvious reasons, the papers on the abortion cases are likely to draw the most interest.

The first case was Roe v. Wade, which arose from Dallas and was decided in 1973, Justice Blackmun’s second year on the court. Justice Blackmun wrote the majority opinion declaring a constitutional right of privacy “broad enough to encompass a woman’s decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy.”