You’ve come a long way, baby, to get Reagan’s nod for the highest U.S. bench

: Reflecting the thinking of most 19th-century American voters – almost all of whom were male – the supreme Court ruled in 1873 that Illinois had a perfect right to deny a lawyer’s license to a woman. ”Civil law, as well as nature lierself, has always recognized a wide difference in the respective spheres and destinies of The man and woman,” Uafioft ~hree jus_ti?es held ff• m an opm1on that concurred with the majority decision by Justice Samuel Miller. “Man is, or should be, woman’s protector and defender,” the opinion said. “The natural and proper timidity and delicacy which belongs to the female sex evidently unfits it for many of the occupations of civil life. The constitution of the family organization, which is founded in divine ordinance as well as in the nature of things, indicates the domestic sphere as that which properly belongs to the domain and functions of womanhood.” Now, 108 years and scores of lawsuits later, Arizona Court of Appeals Judge Sandra O’Connor, 51, is in line to become the first woman among the 101 people to reach the high bench. In announcing that he would nominate Judge O’Connor, President Reagan fulfilled a campaign pledge to name the first woman to the high court, and he won admiring applause from rival politicians for a masterful political stroke as well as a strong judicial choice. Although senators on both sides of the political fence, such as Arizona Democrat Dennis DeConcini and Republican Barry Goldwater, reacted favorably, Judge O’Connor