Sandra Reaches the Top

I t’s a superb appointment. Marvelous for the country, for Stanford, and for the Law School.” So reacted Law School dean Charles Meyers to the announcement that President Ronald Reagan had nominated Sandra Day O’Connor, ’51, LLB ’52. as the nation’s first woman Supreme Court justice . He added : “She’s a woman of great abilit y, tremendous balance, and a good political understand ing.” Meyers was not alone in his praise of the appointment of the 51-year-o ld Arizona jurist who seems certain to join law classmate William Rehnquist, ’48, LLB ’52. on the nation’s highest court. Teachers and classmates from both her undergraduate and law school days and faculty members and administrators who had come to know her during her later years of service on the Stanford Board of Trustees were almost unanimous in their approval. Sallyanne Payton, ’64. LLB ’68, an associate professor of law at the University of Michigan who served as a Stanfo rd Trustee with O’Connor, described her as having “a fine legal mind ” and “exceptionally good judgment.” She added: “She’s a smart, hardworking, judicious, warm, generous, unpretentious person. We were on opposite sides on some issues, but I thought she was careful and honest and at all times had the best interests of the institution at heart.” So convinced of her qualifications were those in the administration screening potential nominees that she was the only candidate to be personally interviewed by the President. In picking the Texas-born Arizona