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http://news.findlaw.com/ap/a/w/1154/...063004_25.html

WASHINGTON (AP) - As lawyers and court watchers have long suspected, the Supreme Court was ready to effectively overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling legalizing abortion in 1992, but Justice Anthony M. Kennedy got cold feet, and the vote went the other way.

Internal notes in the papers of late Justice Harry A. Blackmun reveal the secretive dealings that led to the court's ruling in Planned Parenthood v. Casey that year.

Blackmun's extensive records from 24 years on the court would be open to the public March 4.

Details of the archives were first reported by NPR, which got advance access.

Blackmun's notes show that Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist led a five-justice majority to overrule Roe. Four other justices voting with Rehnquist were Byron White, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Kennedy. Rehnquist himself was to write the majority opinion.

Unbeknownst to him, Kennedy was having second thoughts, and agreed with Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and David Souter, to a compromise position.

The Casey ruling carved out a middle ground that upheld a woman's right to abortion largely free from state regulation.

The case was argued in April and Rehnquist was at work on his majority ruling, when Kennedy sent a note to Blackmun, NPR reported.

"I need to see you as soon as you have a few moments. I want to tell you about a new development in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. It should come as welcome news."

Blackmun picked up a pink memo pad and scribbled, "Roe Sound," The New York Times reported Thursday.

Blackmun had written the Roe ruling 18 years before, and had guarded it from previous attack from conservative justices.

Blackmun's paper legacy, filling more than 1,500 boxes, will be unsealed Thursday on the fifth anniversary of his death.