Sandra Day O'Connor
Well, President Ruiz that was quite a presentation indeed. And accolades, compliments from one's peers, my fellow women judges are the ones that are most appreciated, as you know. And I'm just overwhelmed by all the kindness that you have shown tonight in hosting this great reception and expressing in such generous terms. Your appreciation, I remember so well, when Joan Dempsey climb, then a judge in California decided to get this organization going. And I promptly joined, not having any idea at the time that it would grow as it has, perhaps it would not have done so had not President Ronald Reagan decided, I thought rather courageously to put a woman on the Supreme Court. He campaigned, as you pointed out, saying he wouldn't do it. And his action opens so many doors for women not only in this country but around the world. I remember so well, the day he called me and after I left the interview in his office, I think he did talk to some other people and I left that office and flew back to Arizona that day, and breathed a big sigh of relief. I was interested to obscene the Oval Office and to met with the president and some of his advisors and I said to myself, thank goodness, I don't have to go to Washington and do that job. I really did not imagine that I would be at I mean, my classmate at Stanford, William Rehnquist, was already a member of the court. And I couldn't imagine that that would happen. But it did. And I had to take a lot of deep breaths to decide. I should come and try the job. And as I've often said, it is special to be the first to do something, but you don't want to be the last.
Luckily, although I was the first act for a few years, I was joined by a wonderful colleague with the arrival of Justice Ginsburg, I can't begin to tell you the change that that produced, no longer were there special little articles about how the woman justice voted on a case. All of us became fungible justices. And that was so much better. It was an absolute joy to have such a competent, wonderful colleague on the court. And you can tell from her remarks tonight how special she is not only on occasions like this, but in all of her opinions. So it was great to be joined by her. And it was exciting indeed, to watch the confirmation of Chief Justice Roberts. No one could have handled that miserable process better than Haneef.
I've often told my law clerks and young lawyers, that if they wanted to see how a case should be prepared to argued at our court, they should come to a john roberts argument. I was privileged to hear a 36 of them. I think while I sat on the court, and it was quite a show, I can tell you back. So it was with much excitement that we saw him join the court. And I felt so privileged to have had a brief period of service as an Associate Justice when he had become Chief Justice, and I will treasure those months. And I will treasure this award. You know, it's hard to stand endlessly on a marble floor. And I feel sorry for the people at this reception and I'm going to shut up and sit down and hopes that you can too, but I think they have one more event on this. My last message is That I'm up there in age now. But I truly hope that I am around and still aware of what's going on when we get our third woman justice, our poor Roman justice. Wait a minute, wait a minute and our family Thank you.