Hey, everyone. I've got a little something special for you for July 4th. It is another episode of Slate's narrative history podcast, Slow Burn. This new season is all about the origins of Roe v. Wade. You might remember we had host Susan Matthews on the show a little while back talking about why the future of abortion in America may look a lot like the past. The episode you are about

to hear is the little-known story of how Roe v. Wade was decided in the first place. Just as Harry

Blackman, who was a Nixon appointee, authored the seven-two opinion, and he thought he had

solved the abortion issue once and for all.

So how did that turn out to be so wrong?

Keep listening to find out, and be sure to subscribe to Slow Burn to hear the entire four-part series.

We will be back with a new episode of What Next tomorrow.

But for now, here's Susan.

Richard Nixon called a lot of people bastards.

American generals, the citizens of North Vietnam, the journalist Dan Rather.

And as you'll hear in this clip from his secret White House tapes, he also used the epithet

against another branch of government.

You know, those clowns we've got on there, I'll tell you, I hope I outlive the bastards.

Well, I hope you do, too. I mean politically, too, because we've got to change that court.

The Supreme Court has never been more liberal than it was in the 1950s and 60s.

Led by Chief Justice Earl Warren, they had banned segregation in public schools, outlawed school prayer, and ruled that every criminal defendant had the right to a lawyer, even if they couldn't afford one.

Conservatives accused the Warren Court of legislating from the bench.

And it's one of the things that Nixon campaigns on in 1968.

That's Jim Robenal.

He's a lawyer and the author of the book January 1973.

He is a big opponent of Earl Warren,

and he believes that the court is making up rights

...