Justice O’Connor Still Independent of Court’s Blocs

WASHINGTON – As the Senate considered Sandra Day O’Connor’s nomination to the Supreme Court; Sen. Joseph Biden iold his colleagues that “all bets are of.r’ once a justice takes the oath of office .. The Delaware Democrat was right on target in his reminder last Septem ber that no one in the Senate can predict how a new member of the nation’s highest court will vote once he or she “dons that robe and walks into that sanctum across the way.” . ‘ After three months on the court, Justice O’Connor shows no signs of aligning herself with either its liberal or conservative bloc. SHE told the Senate last summer that her job would be “one of interpreting and applying the law, not making it.” That philosophy has led the high court’s first woman member on occasion to side with the cQurt’s liberals, its conservatives and sometimes mixtures of both. Since she was sworn in Sept. 25, Justice O’Connor: • Joined three of the court’s more conservative members in dissenting from part of a decision allowing most confidential secretaries and other workers with access to an employer’s confidential information to join labor unions. • Joined Justice John Paul Stevens and liberal Justices Thurgood Marshall and William J. Brennan in dissenting from a decision barring federal courts from hearing virtually all laws uas seeking money damages because of allegedly discriminatory property tax assessments. • Joined overwhelming majorities – made up of both liberals and conservatives – in several decisions