Honors Course Reflections

Patrick Bowen Blog 2

This week has been one of the most challenging but rewarding weeks of my life and I wish it did not have to end. Up until this class, I had not had the chance to conduct genuine primary source research, and this was certainly an experience where I was thrown in the deep end. Fortunately, I learned to swim and though the research methodology I had planned to use going into the trip is much different now, I am now even more excited about how the paper I am writing is going to turn out.

A dawn streetview with the horizon displaying pink and orange hues - the rest of the photo has early dawn lighting, with some street lights and car headlights still visible.

Sunrise during our 5:30 AM run with Dr. Kobylka

Beyond the work done in the manuscript reading room, this trip has been an incredible bonding experience with the rest of my classmates. On Friday morning, Ellie and I joined Dr. Kobylka in continuing his almost 20-year unbroken running streak. Though it meant waking up at 5:30 in the morning, and I had not ran since taking PRW 2102 Jogging, it was worth it both for the endorphins that released some of my Blackmun papers-related stress and getting to see an incredible D.C. sunrise (even if Ellie almost killed me with her pace).

Cherry blossom trees in full bloom line the foreground with the Washington Monument in the background

Cherry Blossom season at the Washington Monument.

As we meandered around D.C. on an impromptu monument tour Friday night, I could not help but feel a bit of sadness that the trip was coming to an end. Even the start of cherry blossom season in D.C. could not fully cheer me up about the fact that I would never get a research opportunity as unique and engaging as this one during my time at SMU. While I will of course cherish the dining experiences at We the Pizza and Bullfeather’s, D.C.’s premier Teddy Roosevelt-themed restaurant, the morning runs with Dr. Kobylka, and the games of Secret Hitler where my classmates’ true colors were revealed, I don’t know if I will ever again experience anything like the feeling that I was truly getting to know Justice Blackmun through his papers.

My research plan initially was to look at other Justices’ papers for the significant death penalty cases in addition to Blackmun’s, however, that quickly changed after being faced with the sheer amount of material Blackmun kept. While I did find helpful information here and there in the papers of Justice William J. Brennan, I became wholly absorbed in Blackmun’s papers and my case list grew substantially as I locked on to the path and evolving headspace that would lead him to his final dissent in Callins v. Collins.

Beyond learning the legal and non-legal, internal and external factors that guided the evolution of Justice Blackmun, I truly believe I did get to know him as a person through the papers. Whether it be through the mail he kept, the letters he chose to respond to, his grading of attorney’s oral arguments and their appearances, the comments he would write on his colleagues’ and clerks’ memos and opinion drafts, and most notably, his constant grammar checking of every piece of written word that his desk received.

Page 19 of a clerk correspondence with a comment written in red that says "style manual indicates no underlining" pointing to a handwritten correction from Blackmun underlining a certain word

Patrick’s favorite piece of clerk correspondence

My absolute favorite piece of clerk correspondence, beating out strong contenders like his correspondence with Michelle Alexander, future author of The New Jim Crow, on his famous Callins dissent, or future assistant Deputy U.S. Attorney General Beth Brinkman’s frequent apologies for late opinion draft submissions, was a single handwritten comment by one of his clerks correcting a correction he had made, citing the official Style Guide. I will miss D.C., the manuscript reading room, and getting to know my main man Harry; but I will forever be grateful for this opportunity the Honors Program afforded me.

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