Committee votes for Judge O’Connor

WASHINGTON (UPI) – The Senate Judiciary Committee recommended unanimously today that Sandra Day O’Connor be the first woman Supreme Court justice. The vote was 17-0, with one vote of present. The full Senate is likely to consider the nomination with only nominal opposition Friday. Sen. Jeremiah Denton, R-Ala., saying he was dissatisfied that O’Connor had declined to give her “judicial view” on abortion during three days of confirmation hearings last week, cast the protest of “present.” But Denton, who questioned O’Connor at great length about abortion, said he won’t vote against her because her reluctance to answer was partly a defect in the confirmation process. “Thus, Mr. Chairman, my vote is to respond ‘present,'” Denton concluded after reading a four-page statement. Sens. John East, R-N.C., and Charles Grassley, R-lowa, voted for confirmation but joined in a statement read by East saying that they have reservations about O’Connor’s responses to abortion questions. While she found abortion “repugnant,” O’Connor refused under repeated questions to say whether her votes on the matter as a member of the highest court would reflect that personal view. East said O’Connor’s responses to other issues dear to conservatives – in favor of the death penalty and prp,ent1n’ dl’tmtion and against compulsory school busing indicated she would be a good justice. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R Utah, another conservative, issued a statement giving O’Connor unqualified support. “Judge O’Connor made it clear