Grilling has nominee looking like a winner

WASHINGTON (AP) – After one day of parrying with generally friendly and consistently courteous Senate inquisitors, Supreme Court nominee Sandra Day O’Connor has the look of a winner.

At her first day of confirmation hearings yesterday, several senators tried to draw her into a discussion on her views on such explosive social issues and weighty legal problems as abortion, busing, the death penalty, Supreme Court jurisdiction, citizen access to the federal courts and the rule barring the use of evidence obtained illegally. They usually failed. Mrs. O’Connor, the first woman nominated for the nation’s highest court, did say that she personally is opposed to abortion. That was something less than condemnation of the so-called pro-choice argument, and she otherwise escaped controversy by repeatedly stating that substantive responses would be improper. The Senate Judiciary Committee and crowd of onlookers jamming the Senate hearing room thus obtained little insight about what to expect from Mrs. O’Connor during her anticipated lifetime Supreme Court membership. They did find out that Mrs. O’Connor can sit for long periods of time. When asked late Wednesday if she desired a short break in the questioning, she opted to forge ahead. They also found out she did her homework. When Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, quizzed her about a recent Supreme Court ruling, Mrs. O’Connor had to correct him. The ruling, she pointed out correctly, dealt with the need to notify parents of certain young girls