The lives they lived and the court they shaped: Remembering those we lost in 2022

From left: Lois Curtis, the lead plaintiff in Olmstead v. L.C.; Walter Dellinger, the acting solicitor general under Bill Clinton; Cecilia Marshall, the widow of Thurgood Marshall; and Eleanor Jackson Piel, a pioneering public-interest lawyer. At the end of each year, SCOTUSblog remembers some of the people whose lives and work left an imprint on the Supreme Court. From legendary lawyers to lesser-known activists, journalists, and plaintiffs, the following individuals who died in 2022 all shaped the court and the law in their own ways. David Beckwith (Oct. 30, 1942 – Oct. 2, 2022) Forty-nine years before the leaked opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization , David Beckwith published the original Supreme Court abortion leak. In 1973, Beckwith was a recent graduate of law school and was working as a political reporter for TIME magazine. Intrigued by the court’s deliberations in the pending case of Roe v. Wade , he began interviewing Supreme Court insiders, including justices and clerks. Somehow, Beckwith learned in advance that the court was set to announce a constitutional right to abortion. Initially, Beckwith planned to delay his story until after Jan. 17, 1973, when the court was expected to issue its decision in Roe . But Chief Justice Warren Burger postponed the release of the opinion for five days, and TIME decided to print the story as planned. It hit newsstands on the morning of Jan. 22, 1973 — several hours before the court issued its landmark ruling. “Last week TIME learned […]

Click here to view original web page at The lives they lived and the court they shaped: Remembering those we lost in 2022