The Blackmuns give an interview to Nina Totenburg. A Week Letter Chief Justice Burger Admonishes Blackmun to Avoid Female Reporters

May 13th, 2012

Kyle Graham has the docs:

So, anyway, back to the main point of this post. This past week, when I visited the Library of Congress, I took a peek at a few boxes of folders among the Harry Blackmun papers. Therein, I found: (1) this letter (dated April 20, 1970) from then-National Observer reporter Nina Totenberg to then-nominee Blackmun, thanking him for his recent hospitality during what appears to have been a visit to Stately Blackmun Manor, and apologizing for some errors in a recent Blackmun profile that she had written; and (2) this letter (dated April 27, 1970) from then-Chief Justice Warren Burger to Blackmun, in which Burger gives some pungent advice on how to deal with reporters–especially female reporters. I don’t know if there was a cause-and-effect relationship between the two letters, but Burger’s letter is . . . interesting.  I’ll leave it at that.