Court nominee plans to confer with senators

WASHING TON – Hoping to head off any serious opposition to her Supreme Court nomination from conservatives, the White House has arranged for Sandra D. O’Connor to meet with several key senators, including Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C. President Reagan’s choice to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart was scheduled to arrive in Washington late Monday. Among others , the Arizona appeals court judge will meet with Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee; Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker of Tennessee; various members of the judiciary panel; Helms, a conservative Republican leader in the Senate, and Sen. John East, R-N.C., a leader among abortion opponents. Judge O’Connor planned to visit the Justice Department Tuesday for a meeting with Atty. Gen. William French Smith. Later, she was to be escorted by Arizona Sens. Barry Goldwater, a Re• publican, and Democrat Dennis DeConcini, a Democrat, to Capitol Hill, where talks were planned with Baker and Senate Minority Leader Robert Byrd. Sources said there was a tentative plan for Judge O’Connor to meet the steering committee, a group of about 20 conservative senators including Helms and Thurmond, to persuade the members that her views on abortion and other social issues are in line with their own. The fundamentalist Moral Majority and various anti-abortion organizations have expressed militant opposition to Judge O’Connor’s nomination because they believe she supports legalized abortions and