Solemn and historic ceremony: Now, it’s Justice O’Connor

WASHING TON (UPI) – Sandra O’Connor became the first woman on the Supreme Court Friday, pledging in a solemn and historic ceremony to defend the Constitution and “do equal right t? the ~r and to the rich.” President Reagan and an elbow-to-elbow audience of 400 people jamme~ the courtroom to watch Chief Justice Warren Burger swear in the Mrs. O’Connor as an associate justice of the nation’s highest court . “Justice O’Connor, welcome to the court,” Burger said at the conclusion of the oath. “I wish you a long life and a long and happy career in our common calling.” Earlier, Mrs. O’Connor and her husband, Pheonix attorney John J . O’Connor, rode with the president and first lady Nancy Reagan up PeMsylvania Avenue from the the White House to the Supreme Court, located just east of the Capitol. , On arriving, she went to the privacy of the . ~ustices’ oak-paneled conference room, where the j shf took a Judicial Oath from Burger. There she pledged, in part, ‘i~~P.f. justice without ~ spect to p~nmns, and do equal right to 1:/1! 911or I.Ind to fl)~ nch.” A Sl)ecial session of the high court followed, COrunencing – as always – with the sharp rap of tile gavel by Court Marshal Alfred Wong and the entrance of the black -robed justices. John Marshall more than 150 years ago. Reagan sat next to retired Justice Potter Stewart, 67, the man Mrs. O’Connor replaced in the lifetime post. Attorney General William French Smith , clad in a formal gray morning coat, presented Mrs . O’Connor’s commission