Conservative Arizona lawmaker backs Judge O’Connor

Rep. Donna Carlson West, R-Mesa, an ardent opponent of the Equal Rights Amendment and a pro-life advocate, threw her support Friday behind Judge Sandra O’Connor, a U.S. Supreme Court nominee. In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker, R-Tenn., Rep . Carlson W~t laid she was deeply distressed by opposition to the Arizona Court of Appeals judge’s historic nomination. “I have known Sandra for many years, as a member of the Legislature and member of the judiciary,” Mrs: Carlson West said, “and I am convinced that there is nothing in her record in either capacity that warrants the many unfounded, untrue charges that are being raised in opposition to her nomination as the first woman justice of the Supreme Court.” She conceded that Mrs. O’Connor and two other conservative women legislators had introduced a resolution to ratify the ERA in Arizona. But many legislators and states have changed their minds on ERA since Congress passed it in 1972, Rep. Carlson West said. On the abortion issue, Judge O’Connor cast couple of votes as a legislator with which R Carlson West said she disagreed, “but I do kno that she is personally opposed to abortion.” Rep. Carlson West, immediate past chairman of the American Legislative Exchange Council. national organization of conservative legislator labeled as “untrue” allegations that Judge O’Connor is “pro-gun control, anti-religion and anti-capital punishment.”