State Leaders praise Mrs. O’Connor

PHOENIX – Arizona Appeals Court Judge Sandra D. O’Connor shook her head and told a r~rter, “I didn’t believe It, I didn’t believe it’ as she left a quickly called press confere(lce two hours after she was nominated to become the first female justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Minutes before, she told reporters who had gathered in her appeals courtroom here, “If confirmed, I will do my best to serve the court and this nation in a manner that will bring credit to the president, to my family and to all the people of this great nation.” Dressed in a lightweight blue suit, the blonde-haired, 51-year-old jurist refused to respond to questions touching on the abortion controversy that has already started swirling around her nomination. She said, “l can’t address myself to any substantive questions pending my confirmation hearings.” Her husband, John Jay O’Connor III (himself a practicing attorney), and her three sons, Scott, Brian and Jay, flanked the prospective Supreme Court justice In the crowded courtroom. Asked what she and President Reagan had discussed during a !~minute interview in the White House late last week, Judge O’Connor said, “I’m not at liberty to disclose that conversation. Check with the White House.” Meanwhile, the leader of the the pro-life forces in the Arizona Legislature, Scottsdale Republican James Skelly, said he was “sick” about Judge O’Connor’s nomination. “It has nothing to do with her legal qualifications. No one can argue with the fact that she’s a brilliant