Sandra Day O'Connor
Well, thank you for a wonderful introduction. No one had to twist my arm to get me to come to a team court summer. And I'll tell you why. I have a few grandchildren and my oldest grandchild, a girl happened to have a class and get involved in team court, thanks to Charlene role. And I used to hear all about team court from my granddaughter. And she learned so much in the program and thought so highly of it, that I became a booster long before I was invited to come here today. What surprises me, frankly, is that there aren't multiple team courts in every state of the United States, it is a great program. And my hope is that somehow, word can spread across the United States and produce more team courts, it really helps you as you know, since you're involved, understand how a legal system works. And it helps you learn to deal with very real problems that kids have. It's it's just a great program. So I'm delighted to be here. And I think this is what's needed throughout the United States. Now, how many of you know what you want to do when you're grown? Raise your hand, if you do? Well, that's pretty good. That That's impressive. Maybe that's because of team court. Because I can tell you, I grew up in Arizona, on a remote ranch over in the eastern part of the state, I didn't have much of an idea of what our wanted to do. Well, I knew was cattle ranching. So I wanted to be a cattle rancher, and that it didn't work out too well. And I wasn't involved at that time in public service, because we weren't near a town. So I couldn't be involved in that fashion. And I wasn't thinking about law at that time. But I worked hard as a student. And I was privileged to go to a very good university. And as an undergraduate student, at the university level, I had a professor who was really inspiring, and you will too, it always happens you have somebody who really will trigger something in you that causes you to go off on maybe Charlene role is one of those people who's already triggered something. And lots of students who have heard. And because of that inspiring professor who happened to be a law professor, I applied for law school, and was admitted. I graduated from law school long before any of you were born, I got out in 1952. And at that time, no private law firm were to hire a woman lawyer. There were all these notices on the placement board. law graduates call us, we want to talk to you and my male classmates, 1% of the students in those days law students in the United States 1% were women. So I was part of that 1%. And I called all those numbers on the placement bulletin board, and not one firm would talk to me about a job. They said, Oh, no, you're female, we're not going to talk to you. And I knew a young woman whose father was a partner in a big firm in Los Angeles, California. And I said, talk to your dad and see if he can get me a job interview. And she did. And he did. And I went to Los Angeles and had an interview with the partner and he's looked at my resume. My last thing was day, but Miss day, you have a fine resume here just fine. But mistake, this firm has never hired a woman lawyer. And I don't see that nine when we will.
Then he said, and I look very sad. And he said, Well, how well do you type? And I said social media. And he said, if you can type well enough, I might be able to get your job here as a legal secretary. But mistake, we've never heard a woman lawyer and I don't see the day when we will our clients wouldn't stand for it. Well, I just didn't. I said thank you very much. But I really don't want to be a secretary, I want to be a lawyer. And I looked around some more. And I discovered that the county attorney in San Mateo County, had once had a woman lawyer on his staff. So I thought, well, maybe you have another so I made an appointment to see him. And we talk. He was an Italian America. He'd been an immigrant to this country. And he was very nice. And he said, Oh, you have a great record here. He said, I did have a woman lawyer and she did a good job, I'd be happy to have another. But I get my money from the county board of supervisors, and I don't have any money in my budget to hire another deputy. He walked me through his offices and showed me and he said, I also don't have a place to put another deputy he showed me, there wasn't an empty office or desk. So I went back to the lazy Bay ranch and I wrote him a long letter. That letter is now in the museum in San Mateo County, California. I told him all the things I thought I could do for him if he would hire me. And I said, I know you don't have any money. So I'll work for you for nothing, until you persuade the supervisors to give you a little money to pay me something. And I said, I know you don't have space. But I met your secretary who's very nice, and there's room in her office to put another desk if she had me. And that was my first job. No pay, and I put my desk in with the secretary. But you know what? I it was a wonderful job. It was in public service. I got real, live legal questions to help resolve and answer questions being asked by officials of San Mateo County. And I love my job and I had a lot better time than my male classmates who were all working for the big firms and taking depositions and doing research and getting paid
Sandra Day O'Connor
But anyway, I love my job. And most of the rest of my life was spent in public service because I found it was very satisfying to tell you the truth. And I was lucky in my life to hold positions in all three branches of Arizona state government. I like that. And I never had as an aspiration to become a Supreme Court justice. I thought that was a little unlikely. It had been 199 years and we hadn't had a woman so you know, man, I didn't have that I on my list of to do things. And to my great surprise, and to the surprise of the nation, President Reagan did asked me to serve. He kind of liked horses and cattle ranching. And maybe that's what inspired him to put a ranch girl on the Supreme Court. But I'll tell What I did do throughout my life, I took every opportunity, I had to take on a job that looked like it would be interesting and meaningful. And I didn't care what the pain was. I wanted to do something that I wanted to do, and not work for the money. And life is funny, you don't know what opportunities are going to be out there. And you don't know what challenges you're going to have to face. And all you can do is to be ready for whatever comes along. And that means doing your homework when you're young and have some to do. It means studying and learning all you can about everything when you have the chance to do that. I was a big reader. I don't know if you are but I had my nose in a book. Most of the time. I think I remember my father coming around to save okay. Let's go out to the windmill I lonesome and work on it not have my nose in a book and I said, Oh, I'm in the middle of this book meeting. Oh, no, forget that you've got to come along. So you have to take those opportunities that come along. Now I retired, thank you from the supreme court after 25 years, because my husband at 56 years has Alzheimer's, and he's very sick now. And he needed full time care. And we had lived much of our lives in Phoenix, Arizona, and two of our three sons live here. And I thought we'd better come back here for his care and treatment. So that's what we've done. And I've worked hard since I stepped down from the court to try to help young people learn about our judicial branch and I've had the help of Professor Charles title over here from Arizona State University School of Law. And we felt that there was a serious problem with education in the United States right now. The statistics aren't very good. Two thirds of Americans can name at least one judge on American Idol. Only less than one and 10 can say who are united states, Supreme Court Chief Justice is only barely one third of Americans can even tell us what the three branches of government are. Did you know that? I mean, that's pretty scary. And so that told me that we really have to get busy. Another question. says that only one quarter of young people up to age 25 pay any attention to politics and political affairs. And one half of the states in the United States no longer make civics and government in American history, a requirement for high school.
Now, that tells me we've got work to do. And Professor Kairos and some others have helped me. And we have managed to put together a website and it's called our courts. And it's www dot our courts.org and I hope you'll look at it. It does a great job of least talking about the third branch of government and telling you a little about the other branches as well. And part of it includes already to interact games that are on the website and you will love them. They're really fun to play. So you write that down www dot our courts.org and go try those games and then tell your teachers what you think of it and I hope any teachers in this room will plug in and use that website to it's very teacher friendly.
Sandra Day O'Connor
Now, let me tell you about a story that involves young people and active citizens. It's a story about a little fish and a big dam. Now in Tennessee, during the 1970s, the Tennessee Valley Authority that TVA began to build a big dam on a river. The dam was called the teller code and it was going to provide electricity to the whole region and create a big lake that everyone could enjoy. When the dam was almost completed, a scientists discovered that there was an endangered fish habitat there in the side of the dam, and that if the dam were completed, the fish would become extinct. Now, this little fish was called the snail darker and it's not the most popular favorite Nobody tries to catch it. You don't know about a snail darter, do you? Nobody did. And it's not particularly good looking. It's about three and a half inches long. As far as I know, most people have ignored the snail darter forever. But the people who discovered the danger to the snail Darker, darker thought the construction of the dam ought to be stopped. Well, the people building the dam didn't agree with that they thought it was more important to complete the construction of the damn so it went on. Now a group of students not much older than you decided to go to court about this problem. And maybe I want to save this nail dirt. Now, they couldn't just go to court and try to make the court feel sorry for the fish. They had to show that the snail darter deserve to be protected under existing law. So what would that argument be? Well, the founding fathers didn't think fish had constitutional rights did they not mentioned. So they couldn't argue that the dam was unconstitutional. But the law includes laws passed by Congress. And Congress had passed a law called the Endangered Species Act. And that act protects plants and animals that are in danger of becoming extinct. And the law students thought that that law, man construction of the dam had to be halted. So when people disagree about the meaning of the law or how it ought to be applied, what do we do in the United States? We go to court if we have to, right. And we let the court decide what is the That applies and what does it mean? And does that law mean that the snail dirt is protected and construction of the dam has to be stuck. But the case was called Tennessee Valley Authority versus Hill. And that case went all the way through the courts to the United States Supreme Court, believe it or not, and in deciding the case, at the end of the day, the US Supreme Court was guided by the rule of law. And the rule of law means that the law has to apply fairly and evenly tech every citizen regardless of political pressure, popularity, or individual preference. The justices didn't look to whether the snail darter was a popular fish, or whether they thought the dam was a really good idea. They looked only to what the law said that endangered Species Act law, they had to read the law, see what it said and how it applied. And after careful consideration, the Supreme Court ruled that the Endangered Species Act required that damn construction to stop. How about that? Well, since this Supreme Court was interpreting a law that had been passed by Congress, Congress was free to change the law. They wrote it in the first place, they could change it. So that debate moved from the courts where it had been to Congress. And
there was a senator Howard Baker, who was one of the leaders in the senate at that time, and he's from Tennessee. And he wanted that damn to continue. And he spoke with great passion to his fellow senators about the need for the damn to go ahead and be billed and he referred to this snail director as the bane of his existence, and the Nemesis of his golden years. In the end, Senator Baker, convinced enough of his fellow senators about the need for the damn that the Senate and later the House of Representatives voted to make an exception to the dangerous Endangered Species Act for the telecom dams. And despite the problems for the snail darter, that's what happened. The president at the time was Jimmy Carter, and he signed the bill into law and the dam was completed. Now luckily for this snail dirt or if that isn't quite the end of the story, because thanks to the work of the students, the Tennessee Valley Authority agreed to move a lot of the fish the snail learners to a nearby river, where the fish are doing very well today. So that's a good story.
Now if the supporters of the snail darter didn't understand how our courts or laws work, they wouldn't have been able to take a case all the way to the Supreme Court would be. And if the damn builders didn't understand the powers of the different branches of government to correct problems, they couldn't have convinced Congress to change the law. So I think our system of government worked fairly well in that case, and the intended functions of our government and our structure of government with three branches he was each with some our over the other two, can only survive if all of our citizens understand how things work and what our system of government is and one of the best ways to understand how something works is to use it. Everybody can be a voter, an organizer and an advocate or a trial juror. And I encourage you to be all of those things.
Sandra Day O'Connor
I think it's great that you're involved in team court, because you are already acting as informed citizens in making our system work, aren't you? You're hearing evidence and and deciding what the facts really are with some youngster who's in front of you, and you're listening, they're both sides of the story, and you're trying to decide what we should do. How do we make good citizens out of somebody who's gotten in a little bit of trouble? What do we do and you're helping resolve that? So you're doing exactly the right thing to make you understand our system of government. And I hope that our website with its games in it are going to do the same thing. And I want every one of you to promise me you'll go look at it and play those games and let me know what you think. You can tell our honoree today Miss row, or you can tell Professor Kairos or your teacher And they'll let me know, you're going to lead our nation and we're now in a digital age, you're gonna have to learn to use computers much better than I ever learned it. And I hope that you're learning how our government works and what you as a citizen have the ability and power to do. And I think you're learning how you can affect the judicial system in our country. So, the team courts mission is to help students learn how to be strong forces in the community. What it means is you're going to learn how to lead and help others as you go along. And that's the main thing. And I hope you follow that mission and that purpose, and find your path to being a good citizen in the years ahead and By sharing ideas and sharing solutions, and using what's right in our country to remedy What's wrong, you can and you will make a difference and I'm proud of you and I'm delighted to be here today. Thank you.