O’Connor OK expected

WASHINGTON (UPl)-The Senate is expected to vote overwhelmingly today – if not unanimously – to confirm President Reagan’s choice of Sandra Day O’Connor as the nation’s first woman Supreme Court justice. Plans already are being made for O’Connor to take her oath at the court Friday at the end of the fall Judicial Conference meeting, a prestigious session of senior federal judges with Chief Justice Warren Burger. O’Connor, 51, stayed in Washington over the weekend to be on hand if any problems arose. None were foreseen. In Senate Judiciary Committee hearings week before last, O’Connor emerged as an intelligent, hard-working nominee with conservative views and enough gumption to , refuse to say how she would vote on future abortion cases. Chairman Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., then began trumpeting his enthusiasm over the Arizona appeals court judge and former Arizona state senate Republican leader, predicting she would be confirmed with little opposition on the Senate floor. If any senator privately planned to vote no, he kept it a secret. Sen. Jeremiah Denton, R-Ala., who voted “present” in the committee while 17 other members voted “aye,” was not saying what his vote will be. Denton is disturbed by O’Connor’s refusal to state her judicial position on abortion, which she says she opposes personally. He sent Reagan a note asking for more information to help him decide how to vote on the Senate floor. In response, Reagan called Denton Thursday, according to Steve Allen, Denton’s press