Judge O’Connor Viewed as Tough, Fair, Flexible

PHOENIX-Judge Sandra Day O’Connor smiled as a gaggle of repo rier s and photographers swarmed into her book-lined chambers at the Arizona Court of Appeals. It was a photo session arranged by a White House aide the day after President Reagan announced her selection as the first woman justice of the Supreme Court. The journalists were told in advance that she would answer no questions, but the questions came anyway. Was that jar of jellybeans on her desk a gift from the jellybean-loving President? No, she said with a smile, it came from “a close friend.” What about the complaints of ultraconservative groups about her record on abortion? She declined to answer and, although she still was smiling, her expression seemed to stiffen. The 51-year-oldjudge had gotten a brief taste of the sometimes painful process that traditionally follows the nomination of a Supreme Court Justice. Already, her views on legal and social issues, her judicial and legislative background, her personal life and personal finances are being subjected to intense scrutiny-by the FBI, the American Bar Assn., journalists and special-interest groups. It is a process that will continue through Senate confirmation hearings later this summer, but a tentative portrait of O’Connor can be drawn after several days of inquiries in this sunbaked desert metropolis . Those inquiries found that O’Connor is: -A jurist who in the last six years on the. state bench has handed out harsh sentences but l!_as also protected criminal