Arizona’s first lady of the bench

Arizona is justly proud of Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. She made it clear during her nomination hearing that the nation can count on her to judge cases fairly, on their merits, according to law and not by preconceived notions. It is especially heartening to note that not all the zealous opposition by radical-right, Moral Majority and anti-abortion factions that wanted her defeated carried the slightest might. Her praises rang through the Senate chamber, and the senators unanimously confirmed her nomination. O’Connor’s opponents objected to her support of women’s issues such as the Equal Rights Amendment, removal of sexual distinctions from all state laws, and public money for family planning services. Yet at the same time, she has expressed doubts about busing for racial desegregation and the exclusionary rule, which bars the use at trial of illegally obtained evidence, and she finds abortion personally unacceptable. Whatever her personal views, as a judge she calls them as she sees them. O’Connor stressed at the hearings the importance of not allowing personal inclinations to enter decisions. Sandra O’Connor follows in a line of distinguished “firsts” for Arizona women. Arizona produced the first woman to serve as a chief justice on a state supreme court, Loma Lockwood. Mary Anne Richey of Tucson was the first woman appointed as a U.S. attorney. She now is a federal District Court judge. -O’Connor’s appointment as Supreme Court justice