The New Justice

A~LL t~t remains before Sandra Day •. O’Connor dons the robe of an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court is the formality cif a confirmation vote in the full US.Senate. ‘ The Senate Judiciary Committee’s 17-0 vo1f Tuesday recommending her confirmation indicates that the full Senate might even cast a UQIUlllDOUS vote. Not even the sternest critics of Judge O’Connor’s legislative record on the Senate committee oould bring themselves to cast a “nay 1 ‘ vote when they rec.>mmended her confirmation. Judge O’Connor underwent some of the most gruelling interrogation that Washington has seen in yiears. ‘ In the end, however, her performance at the confipnation hearings was virtuoso. Her poise under fire, her skillful grasp of law and her unyielding professional refusal to be baited into second~essing court rulings clearly established Judge O’Connor as a person with exceptional personal and legal credentials and character . This time a few months ago Sandra Day O’Connor was an obscure state appeals judge, known outside Arizona only by a few members of the legal community. Today, she is an historic personality, known throughout the land and in many countries abroad. Her nomination to the court was a stro1re of genius by President Reagan. Of all the judges he could have selected for the high court, the president could not have found one with such diversity of experience – as an honored law student, as an assistant state attorney general, as a state legislator, and as a judge in two