Only Ultras Fight Mrs. O’Connor for the High Court

“Honored and happy,” Sandra Day O’Connor was also silent and circumspect on questions of her judicial philosophy last week after President Reagan nominated her as an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court. The 51-year-old Arizona state judge would be the first woman on the Court. Her interpretation of the Constitution, Judge O’Connor said, must await the Senate confirmation hearings now likely in September. This discreet silence, coupled with ambiguity In some aspects of her legislative and judicial biography, allowed for enough different interpretations to prompt qualified support from feminist groups while touching off connect within the President’s own conservative camp. Despite the dustup, however, early predictions had her taking former Justice Potter Stewart’s seat on the Court by the October term. A conservative Justice was what President Reagan wanted, particularly one who would exercise restraint and deference to the legislative branch In making law and shaping social policy. ( Justice Rehnquist, the Court’s resident conservative, page22.) “She’s establishment Republican,” said a leading Democratic politician, adding, however, that she was not “of the knee-jerk mold.” An Arizona Assistant Attorney General from 1965 through 1968, Judge O’Connor joined the state Senate in 1969 and became the first woman to serve as majority leader. She compiled a record of mainstream, conservative Republicanism that helped her win election as a Superior Court judge In 1975