Supreme Court Justice Stevens’ private papers open to public

By JESSICA GRESKO and MARK SHERMAN
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A wide-ranging selection of papers that belonged to liberal Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens is opening to researchers at the Library of Congress. The papers provide a behind-the-scenes look at the justices’ deliberations in important cases including the election-deciding Bush v. Gore. The Chicago-born Stevens served on the Supreme Court for nearly 35 years and died in 2019. In that time, the court decided cases on issues including abortion, affirmative action, presidential power, gun rights and the rights of prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention center. The papers being made public Tuesday contain Stevens’ notes from the justices’ private conferences about cases, drafts of opinions and communications between justices, among other things.