O’Connor Worth $1 Million

WASHINGTON (AP) – Sandra D. O’Connor, nominated by President Reagan to be the first woman on the Supreme Court, says she and her husband are worth more than $1.1 million. The sum, which would place her among the wealthiest members of the court, includes her home in Paradise Valley valued at $300,- 000 and a joint partnership interest with her husband in a private law firm worth $342,850. Judge O’Connor’s husband, John J. O’Connor III, is a senior partner in the firm of Fennemore, Craig, Von Ammon & Udall, one of Arizona’s largest. Judge O’Connor bas been a judge on the Arizona Court of Appeals since 1979. THE financial statement was submitted last week to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which begins three days of public hearings on the nomination next Wednesday. Judge O’Connor arrived in Washington Tuesday for “isolated study and preparation” for her testimony at the hearings, a White House spokesman said today. Her nomination is expected to easily win Senate approval. In a statement to the committee, Judge O’Connor said she supports a limited role for the federal courts and is “keenly aware of the problems associated with ‘judicial activism.'” “THE separation of powers principle also requires judges to avoid substituting their own views of what is desirable in a particular case for those of the legislature,” she wrote. Judges are “ill-equipped” to. substitute their views for the executive or legislative branches, which are more “attuned to the public will” and more “politically