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O’Connor faces hard foes at confirmation hearing

September 9, 1981

ITEM DETAILS

Type: Newspaper article
Author: Tribune wire services
Source: Mesa Tribune
Collection: The Kauffman-Henry Collection
Date is approximate: No

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W ASlilNGTON – Although air proval of her nomination to the Supreme Court is all but certain, Sandra O’Connor faces possible hostile questioning on her views on abortion and equal rights at her confirmation hearing today. In addition to President Reagan – who chose the 51-year-old Arizona judge as his first nominee to the high court – Mrs. O’Connor has powerful bipartisan support from her two homestate senators, Republican Barry Goldwater and Democrat Dennis DeConcini. They are expected to help smooth the way to Senate confirmation of Mr.s O’Connor, the first woman ever to be named to the Supreme Court. But conservative groups have made it clear they will not acquiesce in her nomination without a fight. Mrs. O’Connor’s chances received a boost when the American Bar Association rated her “qualified” to serve on the high court. She meets the “highest standards of judicial temperment [sic] and integrity,” the ABA’s judicial reviewing panel said in a letter to Judiciary Committee chairman Strom Thurmond, R-.S.C.

But, the panel added, “Her professional experience to date has not been as extensive or challenging as that of some other persons who might be available for appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States.”

The ABA committee gave Mrs. O’Connor its second highest rating — “qualified,” it said,” after considering her outstanding academic record, her demonstrated intelligence and her service as a legislator, a lawyer and a trial and appellate judge.”

Brooksley Landau,

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