As the first female Supreme Court Justice and the first female state majority leader, Justice O’Connor’s story has inspired many journalists, authors, cartoonists, and groups to celebrate her experience. This catalog explores the media coverage she received throughout her career.
Nineteen opinions do not a full term make, but so far it looks as if Justice Sandra Day O’Connor will be joining the conservative bloc on the U.S. Supreme Court. The court’s first woman justice has sided with the liberals on only one of the 5-4 divisions to date. A paragraph probably should be inserted to acknowledge the irritation felt by the justices whenever they are thus labeled by the press. The high court is not a kind of judicial bench show, the collies here and the poodles there. Nevertheless, when the court divides narrowly, we generally find the “liberal” Justices Brennan and Marshall on one side and the “conservative” Chief Justice Burger and Justice Rehnquist on the other. Justice O’Connor seems to have suited up with the Burger-Rehnquist team. Through Jan. 21, the court had acted on 21 cases. Justice O’Connor had participated in 19 of these. Of the 19, only two were unanimous decisions, and in these two Justice O’Connor herself spoke for the court. In the other 17, the court fell apart like the one-hoss shay. I haven’t checked the statistics, but I suspect that some sort of record was set at this point in a term of court, when four of five decisions on Jan. 12 were reached by 5-4 divisions. This is not the most congenial court that ever came along. Justice Brennan has succeeded the late Justice Douglas as the most acerbic dissenter on the court. In one of the 5-4 decisions of Jan. 12, this one involving the gift of federal property to the Valley Forge Christian College
In Arizona, 1981 started with a bang. A few minutes after the year had begun, Gilbert Dixon, 35, was walking in an alley next to a UTotem convenience store at 602 N. First Ave. Into the alley came a car, with one of its two occupants firing a pistol into the air. “Happy New Year,” Dixon cried, and the man with the gun shot him in the leg. In a way, 1981 was a year that both justified Dixon’s optimism and reflected his fate. On the bright side, a warrior came home from captivity to a hero’s welcome, an Arizonan made history by becoming the first woman member of the U.S. Supreme Court, and a Mesa woman survived a drastic heart-lung transplant. On the dark side, two men were convicted of a brutal contract killing that occurred on the eve of the new year, a Tucson bank was the target of the largest bank robbery in the nation’s history, and a valley in southern Arizona crackled with tension as longtime residents clashed with gun-toting members of a religious cult. It also was a year for offbeat items – topped by the story of true belitJvtrs who planned to end the year in heaven but who had to Republic. settle for Arizona. An oddball entry was one of the first in line for the year. In January, Granvel Downing, a 40- year-old Phoenix construction worker, said he had received a $500 settlement in a lawsuit that he filed after finding a lizard in a bottle of Coke on Sept. 7, 1978. The defendants were the Phoenix Coca-Cola Bottling Co. and Circle K Corp. Downing’s lawyer said one of the
Sandra Day O’Connor’s appointment as the first U.S. Supreme Court justice easily led the I allot for the top Arizona news in 1981, but even ‘ ,en the vote was far from unanimous. Though not really in the running for the Top n, Arizona Associated Press member editors and news directors gave at least some consideration to such other events as the successful transcontinental SuperChicken balloon journey and the unsuccessful predictions in Tucson for “rapture,” the day when all Christians were to be taken up bodily into beaten. It was an eventful year and the diversity of the voting reflected the variation . But with a few exceptions, the events deemed the most newswor – thy over the past 12 months centered more on individuals than on situations. Arizona’s economy, the copper industry’s depression, an Apache Cowity tax revolt, a variety of natural gas leaks, plane crashes, murder trials, a group suicide and other deaths – these all drew a scattering of votes but wound up far down the list. • Second place went to the return of Marine Sgt. James Lopez, career diplomat Robert Ode and the other Americans held hostage in Iran for 444 days. A strong third was the Arizona lottery and its ticket sales that far exceeded expectations . The Orme Dam controversy and its resolution was No. 4 in the voting, followed by Arizona’s passage of its alternative to Medicaid. Eight of those voting gave top honors to the O’Connor story, and only the hostage return drew more than one first-place vote. Selected
“READING” JUSTICE SANDRA DAY O’CONNOR
Carl R. Schenker, Jr.•
On September 25, 1981, Judge Sandra Day O’Connor of the Court of Appeals of Arizona took the oath of office as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Justice O’Connor’s elevation to the Court should be of great interest to state and local governments because her extensive prior involvement in local government should give her an unusual perspective in cases before the Court implicating state or local interests.
I. INTRODUCTION
Justice O’Connor has served previously as an assistant state attorney general, a state legislator, and a state trial and intermediate appellate court judge. Thus, her professional experiences have been intensely “local” and presumably have versed her thoroughly in many of the problems con fronting state and local governments. By contrast, most of the sitting Jus tices were working within a “federal” context at the time of appointment to the Court. When nominated, Chief Justice Burger and Justices Marshall, Blackmun, and Stevens were all sitting on United States Courts of Ap peals; Justices White and Rehnquist were serving as senior officials in the Department of Justice. And neither of the other members of the Court, Justices Brennan and Powell, had as wide a variety of experiences in state and local government as Justice O’Connor.
Popular publicity concerning Justice O’Connor has emphasized that she is the first woman to sit on the Court, rather than that her experience
Arizona’s No. 1 news story for 1981, as voted by the staff of The Phoenix Gazette, was a happy, precedentsetting event that also ranks among the top nationwide. . The news was the appointment of San4ra Day O’Connor of Arizona – a judge, politician, lawyer, wife, mother r. the first woman to sit as a justice Qt the United States Supreme Court. P-.esident Reagan announced her ppdintment July 7, and from then fnti after Justice O’Connor began t sking questions from the bench of _he nation’s highest court, the Arizoilan continued to be front page news. ‘ Justice O’Connor was serving on fhe Arizona Court of Appeals at the time of her nomination. She prefiously was a Maricopa County Superior Court judge. : The remaining nine 1981 stories on ‘fheGazette list, are the: ‘ • Shelving of the proposed Orme barn at the confluence of the Salt and Terde rivers in favor of a Waddell Dam on the Agua Fria. • Beginning of the Arizona Lottery, Its unprecedented success – and its J>ro~lems. 1 • Death of Bishop James Rausch of the Catholic Diocese of Phoenix and the appointment of Bishop Tom O’Brien as his successor. • . • Passage of a $5.8-billion transportation package – including an 8 percent gas tax based on the average retail price per gallon – and the initiative effort that will give voters a chance to turn down that increase. • Redistricting of the five congressional and 30 legislative districts to l;onform with one-man, one-vote manpates based on the 1980 census. : • Natural gas explosions,
Women as Supreme Court candidates: From Florence Allen to Sandra Day O’Connor
By Beverly B. Cook
America was not ready for a woman on the Supreme Court when a well-qualified Florence Allen was available in the 1930s. But by Sandra O’Connor’s day, America had changed its mind.
In the years between Florence E. Allen’s New Deal-era candidacy for the United States Supreme Court and the appointment of Sandra Day O’Connor as the first woman associate justice in September 1981, the proportion of women lawyers qualified for the Court did not change; the number of viable women candidates remained very small. But what did change over the intervening 50 years was the nation’s social climate and political culture.
[Photo caption: U.S. Chief Justice Warren Burger swears in Sandra Day O’Connor on September 25. Her husband, John, holds two family Bibles.]
Allen’s active self-candidacy faltered against the resistance of public opinion and the disinterest of the president. The public did not accept a woman’s seat on the Court, and the politicians, the legal professionals and the justices themselves did not perceive women lawyers as eligibles in the candidate pool. O’Connor’s route to the Supreme Court was smoothed by the recent acceptability of women in high public positions. The new public opinion toward female roles and the increasing importance of the women’s vote encouraged President Reagan to create a woman’s seat and then to look into the small pool of eligible women to find the one most
Justice O’Connor Replaces Justice Stewart: What Effect On Constitutional Cases?
CHARLES D. KELSO*
Potter Stewart, a Republican from Ohio, was appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States in 1958 by President Eisenhower. By the time of his retirement in 1981, Justice Stewart had served through the Warren years and the first decade of the Burger era.1 Pres ident Reagan appointed Sandra Day O’Connor to fill the vacancy. A Republican from Arizona, she served in its legislature and on its Court of Appeals. Lawyers who follow decisions of the Court are asking what difference her appointment will make in constitutional cases.
The question can be approached by studying the most recent term of the Court. From the pattern of votes, particularly how Justice Stewart stood in the 5-4 decisions, some inferences can be drawn. Another ap proach is to look back at 5-4 decisions in previous years where Justice Stewart’s vote with the majority was crucial to the outcome. Both ap proaches will be explored in this article.
During its 1980-81 term, the Supreme Court decided and wrote opin ions in 70 cases where constitutional issues were presented. The pat tern of votes was as follows:
J.D., 1950 University of Chicago; LL.M. 1962 Columbia University; LL.D., 1966 John Marshall Law School: J.S.D., 1968 Columbia University. Law Clerk to Mr. Justice Minton, 1950- 51; Former Associate Dean and Professor of Law, University of Miami, 1966-68; Professor of Law Indiana University; Professor of
Chief Justice Warren Burger refused Wednesday to block U.S. Steel Corp.’s proposed takeover of Marathon Oil Co. Burger turned down an emergency request by rival bidder Mobil Corp. to postpone the Jan. 7 date that U.S. Steel expects to begin buying Marathon’s shares under its $125-a-share tender offer. But the chief justice’s action left open the chance that Mobil could return to him soon. Burger denied the request “without prejudice,” citing a Supreme Court rule that disallows such emergency motions that have not been denied first by appropriate lower courts. Mobil, the nation’s second-largest oil company, asked Justice Sandra O’Connor on Tuesday to freeze the takeover fight until the full Supreme Court has a chance to hear a formal appeal the company filed Tuesday. The appeal challenges a ruling by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals preventing Mobil from buying Marathon stock. Last week, the appeals court ruled that Mobil’s aoouisition of Marathon probably would- violate federal antitrust laws. Justice O’Connor, who hand les all emergency matters coming to the high court from the states encompassed by the 6th circuit, disqualified herself. Following court custom, Justice O’Connor did not explain why she took herself out of the case. Justice O’Connor and her husband, attorney John J. O’Connor III, are spending part of the holidays at their Paradise Valley home. O’Connor, contacted by phone at their home, said he could not comment on court matters in which his wife is involved.
~r, three mon~hs at her new job, Arizona s Sandra O Connor is working IO-hour days, lunching at her desk and has quickly become “one of the guys” on the U.S. Supreme Court. “Within the court itself, she has fit in very easily,” Justice O’Connor’s law clerk, Ruth V. McGregor, a Phoenix resident, said today. “On the world outside, though she is the first woman on the court’ and that is historic.” Mrs. McGregor, who was Justice O’Connor’s hand-picked choice for the prestigious one-year clerkship, told JUSTICE O’CONNOR RUTH McGREGOR The Phoenix Gazette the new justice has not aligned herself with any philosophical group on the ninemember high court. “SHE ANALYZES each case individually and very carefully,” said Mrs. McGregor, who was a partner in the Phoenix firm of Fennemore, Craig, von Ammon & Udall. In the 11 rulings already issued since Oct. 1, Justice O’Connor “has not lined up with the traditional liberal or traditional conservative bloc,” Mrs. McGregor said. If there has been a surprise for the 38-year-old attorney, a 1974 graduate of Arizona State University College of Law, it has been the heavy workload. “Most Americans think that since the court is in session 14 weeks a year, and hand down about 160 decisions, that they don’t work the rest of they year,” she said. “Actually, the workload is incredible, and the justices work very long hours,” Mrs. McGregor said . EACH WEEK, the court receives about 100 petitions for review, making for a three-foot-high stack of reading –
WASHINGTON – As the Senate considered Sandra Day O’Connor’s nomination to the Supreme Court; Sen. Joseph Biden iold his colleagues that “all bets are of.r’ once a justice takes the oath of office .. The Delaware Democrat was right on target in his reminder last Septem ber that no one in the Senate can predict how a new member of the nation’s highest court will vote once he or she “dons that robe and walks into that sanctum across the way.” . ‘ After three months on the court, Justice O’Connor shows no signs of aligning herself with either its liberal or conservative bloc. SHE told the Senate last summer that her job would be “one of interpreting and applying the law, not making it.” That philosophy has led the high court’s first woman member on occasion to side with the cQurt’s liberals, its conservatives and sometimes mixtures of both. Since she was sworn in Sept. 25, Justice O’Connor: • Joined three of the court’s more conservative members in dissenting from part of a decision allowing most confidential secretaries and other workers with access to an employer’s confidential information to join labor unions. • Joined Justice John Paul Stevens and liberal Justices Thurgood Marshall and William J. Brennan in dissenting from a decision barring federal courts from hearing virtually all laws uas seeking money damages because of allegedly discriminatory property tax assessments. • Joined overwhelming majorities – made up of both liberals and conservatives – in several decisions
Before it recessed for the Christmas holidays, the Supreme Court had handed down 11 full-blown opinions and disposed of hundreds of cases with summary orders. As an old trend-spotter, I venture this observation: There are no trends to spot. The high court rocks . along as smoothly as those famous crewmen of the children’s round, who rowed, rowed, rowed their boat gently down the stream. The 1980-81 term saw no great leaps in the law. Nothing thus far in the new term suggests a lust for judicial innovation. The only difference in the present term lies in the presence on the bench of Justice Sandra .Day O’Connor, whose destiny is to go through life forever . hearing herself introduced as the first woman ever to be appointed, etc., etc. She has slipped into the life of the court as easily as a fireman slips into his boots. She has not hesitated to ask questions from the bench. She speaks her mind at the court’s weekly conferences. By every account she is a charming woman, but she is also a justice. She expects, and she gets, the same respect the others get; As Ronald Reagan’s first nominee, it was generally expected – hoped, perhaps – that Justice O’Connor would join the court’s conservative bloc. It hasn’t worked out quite that way, though the evidence is inconclusive. Mrs. O’Connor has participated in nine of the 11 plenary cases; she dissented from the majority’s reasoning in four of them. As a dissenter, she has sided with the liberals three times, the conservatives only once.
~ HOENIX (AP)-The nation’s first female U.S. Supreme Court Justice – Sandra O’Connor of Phoenix-and University of Arizona astronaut Bradford Smith are among “the 25 most intriguing people of 1981” as listed by People magazine. Smith, 50, said he was surprised by his inclusion. He is noted for his work with the university’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and with Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., as head of the photo-imagery team for the Voyager spacecraft missions to Jupiter and Saturn.
WASHINGTON – Broadcast executive Mark Evans Austad of Scottsdale was sworn in Thursday as ambassador to Norway for the Reagan administration. He was administered the oath of office by another Arizonan, Supreme Court Justice Sandra O’Connor, during a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol. The diplomatic appointment is the second for Austad, 62, vice president of Metromedia Inc., the nation’s largest independent broadcast company. He was ambassador to Finland for two years under the Nixon and Ford administrations. Before moving to Arizona, he was a radio and television personality in Washington, D.C., for nearly 25 years under the professional name of Mark Evans. Austad told The Arizona Republic his post in Norway will be one of considerable responsibility. As a NATO ally, Norway occupies a strategic place in the defense of Europe. It was the first country to open the North Sea oil fields and is located strategically on the North Atlantic, he said. More than 15,000 Americans live there.
Austad said President Reagan notified him in August of his nomination to the ambassadorial post. He said he told the president, “You are a man of destiny, and I am proud to play a little part in your administration.” The president replied, “Mr. Ambassador, Norway is not a little part of my administration,” Austad said. Deputy Secretary of State Walter J. Stoessel Jr., representing Secretary of State Alexander Haig, said Austad is “remarkably well-qualified” for the ambassadorship. Stoessel, former ambassador
United Press International
WASHINGTON – Justice Sandra O’Connor, the first woman on the Supreme Court, was the first to questton attorneys Wednesday in a sex-discrimination case of intense interest to women’s rights advocates. The case, brought by two Connecticut school boards, tests the government’s powers to police the job practices of schools and colleges that receive federal funds and to cut off funding if sex discrimination is found. The chief point of controversy is whether Congress intended for the Department of Education to use its rules to weed out sex discrimination in the field of employment practices. In appealing a ruling that allows the government to act against them for allegedly discriminating against two female employees, the North Haven and Trumbull boards of education contend that Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 never was meant to apply to faculty, administrators and 1 teachers but only to students. They say the agency went beyond its authority in , adopting regulations covering employment and the rules should be declared invalid. Representing the government, Solicitor General Rex Lee defended the regulations as they apply to employment. But he also made a significant concession. Lee indicated that the Justice Department now ] acknowledges that Title IX cannot be applied as broadly as women’s rights groups might have liked. Retreating from a position held under the Carter administration, Lee said it is agreed the law can be used to penalize only
Sandra Day O’Connor, the Supreme Court’s first woman justice, and her husband, John J. O’Connor, lived in a towered Victorian house in Charlottesville for about 90 “idyllic” days in 1954. Justice O’Connor last week described the time she spent between February and May of that year in Charlottesville while her husband was a student at the U.S. Army Judge Advcate General’s School. • “We thoroughly enjoyed the three months we spent there in the spring,” she said. Mr. O’Connor, contacted in Phoenix, Ariz., where he is presently an attorney, said that he and his wife had lived in the solarium apartment of a large house at 620 Park Street, while he was a U.S. Army lieutenant in the basic class at JAG School. “We had only been married since Dec. 20, 1952; and neither of us had ever been East, so for us it was a very, very happy interlude. We loved Charlottesville, and we established some friendships at the JAG School which have lasted all these years,” Mr. O’Connor said. He recalled that a friend who had been in the previous JAG class was vacating the apartment on the comer of Park Street and Park Lane and recommended that they take it. He said he car-pooled to school with six other JAG students so their wives could always have a car. “We all got together and played charades – people don’t play that much anymore – and we went with friends to Williamsburg and Washington, D.C., never dreaming that someday that would be our ~anent.home. It was an ~e time in our lives,and 1 we developed
WASHINGTON – Sandra O’Connor’s first opinion as a Supreme Court justice – delivered Tuesday in an oil- and gas-leasing dispute – came on a unanimous vote. But it was nonetheless a controversial ruling that says the Interior Department need not try out different offshore-leasing arrangements that might provide more revenue for the government and less for oil companies. With Justice O’Connor reading her first decision from the bench, the high court by a 9-0 vote struck down a ruling that had ordered the government to “experiment” in leasing deals with oil firms that want to drill on the Outer Continental Shelf. The alternative leasing plans are intended to give small firms a better chance when competing against the biggest oil companies in bidding for drilling rights. Justice O’Connor, who promised at her confirmation hearings that her opinions would be “terse,” fulfilled that vow with a 17-page ruling that avoided flowery language. _ , Shortly after Tuesday’s session opened, Justice O’Connor – the first woman ever to sit on the nation’s highest court – delivered her opinion in a steady voice. Seated at the far right of the long mahogany bench, the customary spot for the court’s junior justice, she took five minutes to read parts of it to the near-capacity crowd in the marble-columned courtroom. Her opinion managed to cover the history of the dispute in just over seven pages. In the remaining 10, she discussed the arguments on both sides, concluding with the court’s analysis and
TRIBUTE
Justice Sandra Day O’Connor: Reflections of a Fellow Jurist
Laurance T. Wren*
On the afternoon of September 25, 1981, I watched Sandra O’Connor sworn in as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. I marveled that an event so steeped in tradition would consume only a few minutes. She spoke no words, except her oath, followed by a smile at the President and a “welcome” from the Chief Justice. Yet, with this simple ceremony she began walking where no woman had ever walked before.
As Justice O’Connor took her seat to the far left of the Court, I felt great pride in being a member of the “obscure” Arizona court from which she came. The early morning announcement on July 7, 1981, that Presi dent Reagan had nominated her to the Supreme Court was not only to
change the course of American history, it was to have a tremendous im pact on Division One of the Arizona Court of Appeals, and even take some of its members to a reception. at the White House and the chambers of the United States Supreme Court.
The announcement also brought to our court scores of reporters, pho tographers, and television cameramen. We were deluged by hundreds of phone calls from all over the United States. As one of our judges com mented, it was as if we, too, had been vicariously appointed to the Court. As I write this, on the first Monday in October, the Court crier has again proclaimed that Supreme Court of the United States is in session, and Justice O’Connor has begun her
It can be said of Supreme Court justices that most Americans would not know one when they saw one. This year, however, one made the cover of People magazine. Sandra Day O’Connor is stopped in public places and asked for autographs. It can be said of oral argument at the Supreme Court that it is not one of the most popular shows in town. But this year, attendance by the public in the first two months of the term increased 30 percent. The eight other justices seem socially invisible in this town. But there are so many requests for social commitments by O’Connor that she apparently does not have time to see fully what she is getting into. O’Connor recently found. herself contributing two autographed copies of the Decl8.l’ation of Independence to what turned out to be a fundraising auction for a legal defense fund. That is taboo for Supreme Court justices. A court spokesman said that being “flooded with requests, she was unaware” of the auction’s purpose. Nobody cares much about the comings and goings of, say, Justice Harry A. Blackmun. Nobody cared, for example, that Chief Justice Warren E. Burger rode a bicycle until an accident some years ago. This year, there have been several inquiries about where O’Connor takes her exercise class, an item and cartoon in the American Bar Association journal about how she was asked for check-cashing identification at a local supermarket and a mention in the Ear gossip column about how she was spotted unloading personal belongings from a UHaul
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor said today the time has come for Arizona “to buckle down and achieve a thorough reform1 ‘ of its lower court system. “Arizona has studied this problem long enough,” Justice O’Connor told an audience of about 400 at a conference on “Arizona’s Pe()ples Courts: Proposals for Improvement,” at the Arizona State University College of Law. SHE SAID the current judicial system creates “overlapping jurisdiction, duplication, disparity in workloads and cash-register justice.” Justice O’Connor, an Arizona appeals court judge before being named by President Reagan to the Supreme Court, was introduced by ASU law professor Willard Pedrick as the “Jackie Robinson” of the high court. Quoting Thomas Jefferson, she said, “Laws and institutions must change to keep pace with changing times.” She traced the history of court reform proposals back to 1906 and outlined successful court unification schemes in Kentucxky, Connecticut and Wisconsin. According to Justice O’Connor, any reform of municipal and justice courts should include: • A mechanism to remove incompetent judges at the local level. • Central court management and administration. “We need to reassign judges, relieve congestion and provide for central recordkeeping,” she said. • State financing of local courts. “People tum to courts when all else fails,” Justice O’Connor told the group, which was dotted with state Supreme Court justices, lawmakers and ASU law students. “Unfortunately they also
The novelist who once observed “you can’t go home again” never knew Sandra O’Connor. America’s first woman Supreme Court justice came home to Phoenix in grand style Wednesday for one last round of send-offs from the admiring friends and co-workers of a quartercentury climaxed by a glittering banquet attended by a veritable “who’s who” of the state’s business, civic, political and judicial establishment. IT WAS a poignant moment, for her new lifetime job in Washington never will allow her to be much more than a visitor to her native state. “She steps out of our midst,” said Gov. Bruce Babbitt, host for the $50- a-plate dinner which sold out in three days, “and into the pages of American Picture On Page A-4 history. We will all miss you very much.” But he added, the justice leaves behind an inspiration “that it’s still possible for the American dream to come true.” Although she had been plucked by President Reagan to a new home a continent away and the highest position ever held by an American woman, Justice O’Connor told the tuxedoed audience of 850 home is still where the – heart is. “ARIZON A IS a land of oppor- . tunity and happiness,” she said. “It is my home because it is where you are. I love Arizona, and I love all of you.” She pledged to spend “the rest of my professional life trying to do everything I can to justify the president’s confidence in me.” And with a reference to one of Reagan’s bestknown movie roles, she added, “I, too, want to win one for the Gipper.” In
Supreme Court Justice Sandra O’Connor, honored as Arizona’s home-grown heroine in daylong festivities Wednesday, credited former colleagues and officials for their ability to look beyond her gender for her eventual rise to the high court. “I found in Phoenix not discrimination, but encouragement; not just an opportunity for women to follow, but an opportunity for women to lead,” the former state senator and Arizona Court of Appeals judge said. “It’s not Sandra O’Connor who brought honor to the state of Arizona, it’s the state of Arizona which has brought honor to Sandra O’Connor. And I thank all of you for the part you’ve played in that.” Justice O’Connor, the first…woman appointed to the Supreme Court, was applauded by a long list of dignitaries, including Sen. Dennis DeConcini., Rep. John Rhodes and Gov. Bruce Babbitt. Her day culminated with a lavish banquet at the Arizona Biltmore attended by 850 invited guests. She also was honored by her husband, John, .who voiced his pride. He also noted his own unique status in Washington when he told the audience that he’s the chief executive of the most exclusive men’s club – the Men’s Auxiliary of the Supreme Court. Earlier in the day, at the state Capitol Mall, Justice O’Connor received accolades and gifts from Babbitt, former legislative and judicial colleagues and Phoenix organizations. In her remarks, she praised Phoenix Mayor Margaret Hance, saying with a smile that the mayor is proof that “a woman can do a reasonably good
PHOENIX (AP) – The nation’s first woman U.S. Supreme Court justice told a crowd of admirers at the state Capitol today that it “was not Sandra Day O’Connor who brought honor to Arizona, but Arizona that brought honor to Sandra Day O’Connor.” Gov. Bruce Babbitt, Arizona Chief Justice Fred C. Struckmeyer Jr. and legislative leaders joined her on the podium under cloudy skies as about 200-300 persons gathered in the Capitol Mall to offer their tribute. Babbitt formally presented a proclamation declaring the occasion Sandra Day O’Connor Day. “Never in my wildest dreams did I ever dream that I’d be standing here in the Capitol Mall on a day proclaimed as Sandra Day O’Connor Day,” she said. Wearing a white coat against the morning chill, Mrs. O’Connor said she was proud to be allArizona, recalling her career as an assistant attorney general, a state senator and a judge before her nomination to the Supreme Court. “It was this state and this city that gave me a job when there weren’t too many jobs for women,” she said. “It was not just an opportunity to work but to lead.” She said she was hired by a male attorney general as-an assistant and her first assignment was as counsel to the cosmetology board. “I guess they thought I needed to improve my appearance,” she said. When a vacancy occurred in the Arizona Senate, Mrs. O’Connor said, “It was an all-male board of supervisors that appointed me.” “If you think you know your family well, you should try the Legislature when you’re working
PHOENIX (AP) – The nation’s first woman U.S. Supreme Court justice told a crowd of admirers at the state Capitol today that it “was not Sandra Day O’Connor who .brought honor to Arizona, but Arizona that brought honor to Sandra Day O’Connor.” Gov. Bruce Babbitt, Arizona Chief Justice ired C. Struckmeyer Jr. and legislative leaders joined her on the podiwn wider cloudy skies as about 200-300 persons gathered in the Capitol Mall to offer their tribute. Babbitt fonnally presented a proclamation declaring the occasion Sandra Day O’Connor Day. “Never in my wildest dreams did I ever dream that I’d be standing here in the Capitol Mall on a day proclaimed as Sandra Day O’Connor Day,” she said. Wearing a white coat against the morning chill, Mrs. O’Connor said she was proud to be an Arizona, recalling her career as an assistant attorney general, a state senator and a judge before her nomination to the Supreme Court. “It was this state and this city that gave me a job when there weren’t too many jobs for women,” she said . “It was not just an opportunity to work but to lead.” She said she was hired by a male attorney general as an assistant and her first assignment was as counsel to the cosmetology board. “I guess they thought I needed to improve my appearance,” she said. When a vacancy occurred in the Arizona Senate, Mrs. O’Connor said, “It was an all-male board of supervisors that appointed me.”
PHOENIX (AP) – About 850 persons are expected to attend a $50-~- plate dinner being held m Phoenix tonight in honor of Sandra O’Connor, the first woman justice on the C.S Supreme Court. The black-tie dinner at the Arizona Biltmore is to be televised by KAET TV in the Phoenix area . During the morning ceremony, Babbitt planned to present a proclamation to the justice naming today Sandra O’Connor Day. Phoenix [Mayor] Margaret Hance is hosting the Iuncneon and Babbitt has the same role for the dinner .
O’Connor on the Courts
Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor will deliver the 9:15am keynote address at a one-day ASU College of Law conference entitled “Arizona’s People’s Courts: Proposals for Improvement” State political and judicial leaders will attend to learn the results of a six-month ASU study of Arizona’s municipal and justice court system. O’Connor is expected to urge state legislators to work towards lower court reform. Other speakers include Chief Presiding Judge William J. Carter, Jon M. Memmott (director of research for the Utah legislature), and Arizona Senators Jim Kolbe, Leo Corbet, and Jones Osborn. All sessions will take place in the Great Hall of the ASU Law Building. The conference is open to the public at no charge.
WASHINGTON – At the age of 51, John J. O’Connor 3d found himself looking for a job. His wife, Sandra Day O’Connor, had been appointed to the Supreme Court, a lifetime job, and unless he planned to spend the rest of his days commuting back to Phoenix where he was a partner in a prestigious corporate law firm, it meant relocating.
Eight years ago John W. Schroeder, a Denver lawyer, faced a similar decision. But his wife did not have lifetime tenure. Patricia Schroeder had been elected to the House of Representatives and their future beyond the two-year term was a question mark.
Mr. O’Connor and Mr. Schroeder are two members of a growing Washington breed: political husbands. As a result of their wives’ election or appointment to office, they face the same problems that political wives have endured for years. Beyond the obvious disruptions of moving a household, finding new schools for the children and confronting career changes, there is the subtle and sensitive problem of suddenly taking second place behind a woman who has instant name recognition and upon whom attention is lavished. It helps to have a strong ego.
Making the Move
”There was really no alternative but to move to Washington,” Mr. Schroeder recalled. ”Our son, Scott, was 6, and our little girl was still in diapers, so it just wasn’t possible to think about trying to live in both cities.”
He turned his caseload over to his Denver partners, flew east on a weekend to buy a Washington home, and after his wife got
Supreme Court Justice Sandra O’Connor will be the guest at the state Capitol today in a day designated by Gov. Bruce Babbitt to honor her. Justice O’Connor, the first female justice, will attend a welcoming ceremony on the Capitol grounds, a luncheon and a black-tie dinner. Mayor Margaret Hance will be host for the luncheon, and Babbitt will have the same role at the dinner, which will be telecast live on Channel 8 beginning at 9 p.m. Babbitt, Arizona Chief Justice Fred Struckmeyer Jr. and legislators will greet .Justice O’Connor at a ceremony at 9:30 a.m. on the Capitol mall. Babbitt will present a proclamation to the former state senator and Arizona Court of Appeals judge naming today Sandra O’Connor Day. At noon, representatives of the Maricopa County Bar Association, Junior League, National Conference of Christian and Jews and the Soroptimist Club of Phoenix will deliver brief remarks at a luncheon at the Lath House in Heritage Square. Justice O’Connor, the 102nd Supreme Court justice, also will speak, according to the mayor’s office. About 400 people are expected to attend the luncheon, she said. The $50-a-plate dinner at the Arizona Biltmore will be preceded by a reception at 6:30 p.m. About 850 guests are expected to attend, the governor’s office reported.
“‘ 1 first “di scovered ” snow four years ago wh en friends invi~_ed me to the Snowbowl. we had been gettin g the bus iness from our s~ung friends for two seasons about how great the sp ort was, bu t l~k~ most non -skiers , we were convinced these snow-chic snobs ?nly did 1t so th ey could wear their new $500 outfits around the campfire . Two tiring but constructive Mondays lat er , we wer e hooked , bless ed th short lift lines a ba se of 100 inches (with fresh, packed powder, of :~urse) and crystal 1 ctear skies. Growin g up in Illinois , snow was something to sh ovel : in Arizona. it was heaven. we began planning this week ‘s Ticket skiing issue about a month 0 when the weather was still very much in the summer mode. Then , ~f;as easy to handle . But now, as the snow and ski season is on the verg e of rea lity , the wait seems too much to bear. I can only run around the house with my Nordicas on for so long . . So, if the heavens ar e listenin g, let it snow, let it snow, let 1t snow. Who better to display their artwork at an event hono~ng our _ne’!I’ U.S. Sup reme court Justice than Arizona’s foremost pamter, Fntz Scholder? , th H d A recent black tie event honoring Sandra O Connor at e ea~ Museum was gr aced by four paintin gs from Scholder’s flower senes. complimented by a “garden room ” at the Heard . . The first time the series was seen here was last year a~ ~anly~. Butler Fine Art in Scottsdale . The centerpiece for the exh1b1t was Pur – ple Rose No. l.” th The series
Former Arizona Supreme Court Justice Renz Jennings is one Phoenix lawyer who isn’t thrilled that Sandra O’Connor has been elevated to the U.S. Supreme . Court. He doesn’t like her. In 1978, Jennin_gs, by then having returned lo private practice, stood m open court as O’Connor, the trial Judge, told Jennings’ client that Jennings was representing him so poorly that he should get a new lawyer. Not content lo stop there, O’Connor reportedly complained to the state bar disciplinary board that Jennings then 79 years old, was senile and should be remov~d from practice. “For Sandra to do that took a lot of gumption,” says Barry Silverman, a Maricopa County commissioner who was then a prosecutor assigned to O’Connor’s court. “Jennings’ problem – missing deadlines, mishandling cases – was something all of us had winked at. But here was a trial court judge publicly declaring that a former supreme court judge was incompetent.” Sandra O’Connor’s record is that of a woman who winks at nothing. Often that has made her formal even rigid,, in demeanor. But more often, and more iinporlant, 1_t has made her a strong, sometimes gutsy judge who rigidly respects the legal process and is intolerant of those who take it less seriously. Ask defense lawyer Lionel Estrada. “She embarrassed me terribly,” he says, referring to a case in which O’Connor sentenced his client to 30 to 50 years for rape and sodomy and then vacated the conviction because Estrada had, she said, handled the case incompetently.
WASHING TON -As a Supreme Court justice , Sandra D. O’Connor was expected to draw special attention. She is doing so for an unusual reason: for the things she is not doing. She is declining to participate in court cases at a higher rate than any other justice. Her pattern of frequent self-disqualification appears to be well set after less than six weeks on the bench . So far, the court has held full-scale hearings on 38 cases, and O’Connor stayed off the bench for five of them. That rate of so-called “refusal” is especially high. She also has refused to participate in 18 other cases the court has handled. Following the custom that nearly every justice has adopted, she has refused to explain the disqualifications. The court announces the fact that a justice is out of a case, but usually nothing else is said about it, on or off the record. As in O’Connor’s recent actions, there has been no hint that any disqualifications involved anything illegal or improper. The issue arose fresh for O’Connor last week after her lawyer husband, John J . O’Connor III, signed on as a partner with a Washington law firm. His search for a partnership here apparently involved efforts to avoid an affiliation that would complicate his wife’s judicial life. A member of the firm of Miller & Chevalier said there had been some discussion about how few cases the firm handles in the Supreme Court. It would be automatic for the justice to stay out of any appeal involving her husband ‘s firm . All federal judges
Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor is expected to urge state lawmakers to take action on lower court reform when she addresses an Arizona State University College of Law conference Nov. 27. O’Connor will the keynote speaker for the oneday session on “Arizona’s People’s Courts: Proposals for Improvement.’ ‘ Leaders from Arizona’s political and judicial arenas will attend the conference to hear findings of a six-month ASU study of the state’s municipal and justice court system . The $48,000 study was funded by the Arizona Legislative Council, a legislative committee, with the objective of providing politically workable suggestions for lower court reform, according to study director Dr. Jo Ann G. Pedrick. Justice O’Connor’s ties to the matter go back to 1974, when she was state senator and was appointed by the Arizona Supreme Court to chair an ad hoc committee on the topic. The ASU study is a cooperative effort between the College of Law and the Center of Criminal Justice in the College of Public Programs . Study co-directors are Willard Pedrick , ASU law professor and founding Law College dean, and Dr, Peter Haynes, ASU criminal justice professor. Pedrick chairs the Arizona State Bar : Committee on Lower Courts. For the research, 91 percent of the state’s lower court judges and 78 percent of selected attorneys practicing in the system completed questionnaires. More than 125 individuals who have had cases heard in justice or city courts were interviewed by telephone. The
TEMPE – U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor will be the keynote speaker Nov. 27 at a College of Law conference at Arizona State University, ASU officials have announced. The conference is designed to hear findings of a six-month ASU study of the state’s municipal and justice court system. Justice O’Connor’s speech is entitled “Don’t Just Stand There,” and is expected to urge state lawmakers to take action on improvements in lower courts.
TEMPE (AP ) – Justice Sandra Day O’Connor of the U.S. Supreme Court will be the keynote speaker Nov. 27 at a College of Law conference at Arizona State University, the school announced Wednesday. The conference is designed to hear findings of a six-month ASU study of the state’s municipal and justice court system . Justice O’Connor’s speech is entitled , “Don’t Just Stand There,” and is expected to urge state lawmakers to take action on improvements in lower courts . Others listed speakers include state senators Jones Osborn, Jim Kolbe and Leo Corbet; Presiding Judge William J. Carter of the Phoenix City Court and Jon M. Memmott, research director of the Utah Legislature .
A black tie event honoring the new U.S. Supreme Court Justi ce Sandra O’Connor at the Heard Museum was highlighted by four paintings by Arizona artist Fritz Scholder. The ima ges in the series are a rose done in reds and purples, a simple white blossom edged in purples on a green background, a tulip in blues, yellows and grays, and a dahlia in white with green edges against an oxblood background. . . The series may be seen at Maril yn Butler Fme Art, 7157 E. Main St. , for the coming two montl-is .
WASHINGTON (AP) – Like his wife, John J. O’Connor III has a new job in Washington . O’Connor , now a partner in a Phoenix law firm is moving to Washington to join the firm of Miller’ & Chevalier. His new firm says O’Connor won’t have much call to represent client s before the Supreme Court – a good thing for O’Connor and wife Sandra Day O’Connor . Mrs. O’Connor is the newest justice on the Supreme Court, and_ would have to disqualify herself from any case m which her husband was involved. O’Connor ha s been commuting from Phoenix since his wife was confirmed Sept. 21. He start s his new job Jan. 1.
On September 25, 1981, Sandra Day O’Connor raised her hand in Washington, D.C. and, within a few moments, made history as the nation’s 102nd Supreme Court justice and as the first woman ever to sit on the country’s highest tribunal. And at that moment, Stanford Law School became the first law school to seat two members of the same class on the winged bench in the Supreme Court’s colonnaded courtroom.
When President Reagan announced O’Connor’s nomination, he lauded her as “a person for all seasons.” In the days that followed, Reagan’s nominee received enthusiastic endorsement from liberals, moderates, and conservatives alike. Indeed, with the exception of ultra-conservative groups, such as The National Right to Life Committee and The Moral Majority, support for the first female justice was nationwide. An Associated Press-NBC poll revealed that 65% of the country supported O’Connor’s appointment.
When the time came for the Senate to give its crucial assessment, O’Connor was confirmed 99-0. And, with that vote, a 191-year-old tradition was broken; the brethren finally had a sister.
Who is Sandra Day O’Connor? What unique set of experiences and circumstances guided her walk into history? What will her appointment mean for the Court?
Shortly after O’Connor’s nomination was announced a Presidential aide involved in the search for the first woman justice observed: “She [O’Connor] really made it easy. She was the right age, had the right philosophy, the right combination of experience,
W ASHINGTON – After a while, you begin to wonder , why we get ourselves into suqi a state every time we make a breakthrough that should have come years before. It makes no sense. The most significant thing about wai<:hing Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor sitting at the far enl of the U.S. Supreme Court bench he(e Monday was that it all seemed so perfectly natural. justice O'Connor wore the same type of black robe that the other eight jualices wore. Her questions were every bit as probing. Her demeanor wu every bit as serious. If anything, th• new justice appeared even more ~ive in her pursuit of details, more interested in the cases up for con1ideration than some veteran me)n.bers of the court - who sat back and let her do the probing. With its marble pillars, red velvet baekdrop, heavy wooden benches and wine-colored carpets, the Supreme ' Thursday, November 12, 1981 Tom Fitzpatrick Court is more than a little impressive. Each time the court goes into session, long lines form. Lawyers from all parts of the country, law students and tourists wait patiently outside the building, hoping to gain entrance to the limited and always packed seating area. Monday was no exception. The mood of the court was somber. The case under consideration was a death penalty given to a 16-year-old by an Oklahoma court. The question that brought the case of Monty Lee Eddings this far was whether the imposition of the death penalty on a 16-year-old constituted "cruel and unusual punishment."
FORMER ARIZONA Supreme Court Justice Renz Jennings is one Phoenix lawyer who isn’t thrilled that Sandra O’Connor has been elevated to the U.S. Supreme Court. He doesn’t like her. In 1978, Jennings, by then having returned to private Is Actually One Tough Cookie practice, stood in open court as O’Connor, the trial judge, told Jennings’ client that Jennings was representing him so poorly that he should get a new lawyer. Not content to stop there, O’Connor reportedly complained to the state bar disciplinary hoard that Jennings, then 79 years old, was senile and should be removed from practice.
“For Sandra lo do that took a lot of gumption,” says Barry Silverman, a Maricopa County commissioner who was then a prosecutor assigned to O’Connor’s court. “Jennings’ problem – missing deadlines, mishandling cases – was something all of us had winked at. But here was a trial court judge publicly declaring that a former supreme court judge was incompetent.”
Sandra O’Connor’s record is that of a woman who winks at nothing. Often that has made her formal, even rigid, in demeanor. But more often, and more important, it has made her a strong, sometimes gutsy judge who rii;- idly respects the legal process and is intolerant of those who take it less seriously.
Spurred by references in the national media to her supposedly limited credentials and to the middling ratings she had been given in local bar association surveys, I went to Phoenix the month before O’Connor’s confirmation expecting to
Reagan Appoints First Woman to U.S. Supreme Court
WASHINGTON , D. C.- Next week (October 5) the U .S . Supreme Court will-for the first time-gain a woman ‘s touch . After 191 years and 101 male members, the Court is expected to welcome Sandra Day O’Connor as an Associate Justice. President Reagan has appointed her to take the place of Justice Potter Stewart , who retired . The President’ s nomination of Judge O’Connor , which came last July, fulfilled a campaign promise. But President Reagan made it clear that keeping the promise wasn’t his main reason for the appointment. “[I did not pledge] I would appoint a woman merely to do so,” he told reporters . ” Rather , I pledged to appoint a woman who meets the very high standards I demand of all Court appointees .” ‘Smart, Fair’ At the age of 5 I, Sandra O’Con – nor comes to the Supreme Court with a distinguished background . She grew up on her parents’ Lazy B ranch in Arizona but went to private school in El Paso, Tex . During summers, she says, she went back to the ranch and “fixed windmills and repaired fences .” At the age of 17 she entered Stanford University and graduated with honors . She finished Stanford Law School among the top ten in her class. Judge O’Connor was married shortly after graduating from law school to John Jay O’Connor, also a lawyer . They have three sons. From 1965 through 1968 she served as assistant attorney general of Arizona. Then she was elected to the state senate and became senate majority leader
PHOENIX (AP) – U.S. Postal inspectors and Secret Service agents are investigating the mailing this week of dozens of letters, most containing a bullet taped to a picture of President Reagan. A postal inspector in Phoenix, R.D. Kanoy, said the letters are almost identical to a batch sent out in July, allegedly by a Scottsdale man. They were addressed to several Phoenix judges, some U.S. congressmen, Sen. Dennis DeConcini, D-Ariz., and several newspapers, including the Scottsdale paily Progress. Mailing explosives is a federal crime, pwiishable by up to 20 years in prison and a $100,000 fine. The author of the latest letters listed a return address of a Tucson post office box and said they were from “Mr. A. Melvin McDonald,” officials said. McDonald is U.S. Attorney for Arizona. The Scottsdale man who allegedly sent similar letters did so in an apparant attempt to be readmitted to the Air Force after being discharged because of mental problems , Kanoy said. The latest three-page letters included a photocopied photo of Supreme Court Justice Sandra D. O’Connor appears to be dripping blood, The Tucson Citizen said. The words “Kill Ronald Reagan” were coming from her mouth. Blood also was shown dripping from a photo of Reagan, with a .22 caliber bullet taped to his chin.
At the age of 24, Scott O’Connor will bring both youth and experience to the town of Paradise Valley Planning and Zoning Commission. He was recently appointed to serve on the commission by the Town Council. O’Connor, who grew up in the town, said he knows the community well and believes he can do a good job. He also is “glad to be a part of the group” and does not believe his youth will be a problem. O’Connor said he hopes he does not “come off as seeming like a smart aleck young kid” and added that he appreciates the time the other commission members have put in and their experience. O’Connor will attend his first meeting when the planning commission meets at 7 tonight in the Town Hall, 6401 E. Lincoln Drive. O’Connor noted that he has a “fairly good sense of the town.” He is proud of the town’s preservation of open space and hillsides and the “quality of development” in the community. O’Connor also believes in maintaining the town’s “residential character.” He moved to the area as an infant with his parents John and Sandra Day O’Connor. His mother recently became the first woman to be appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. O’Connor attended Phoenix Country Day School, Brophy Preparatory …
[Photo caption: SCOTT O’CONNOR, 24, will be the youngest member present at tonight’s meeting of the town of Paradise Valley Planning and Zoning Commission. O’Connor is the son of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra O’Connor. ]
Supreme Court J ustice Sandr a Day O’Connor received a new addition to her wardrobe this week. The chemise in question is a T -shirt depicting one woman justice and her eight male colleagues. T he capt ion under the group reads: “One down, eight to go.” Thirty students at the Woman’s Law Caucus of Northern Kent ucky University’s Chase Law School sent the i,hirt to O’Connor. In reply, she wrote, “The T-shirt is terrific. Forgive me if I don’t wear it around my colleagues just yet, but it will be nice to get some female companions m the future.”
WASHINGTON (AP) – Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor is refusing to participate in three of the 11 cases argued during the first week of the court’s 1981-82 term. The newest justice has disqualified herself from the three cases, a member of her staff said Friday, but Justice O’Connor will not say why she stepped aside. The three cases – involving insurance law, worker compensation and federal election financing, are to be decided by next June or July. Federal law and a judicial code of conduct requires federal judges to remove themselves from cases in which it might appear they have a conflict of interest. There are no hard rules for most such disqualifications. Many are left up to individual conscience. But a 1974 law requires disqualification from cases in which a judge has any direct financial interest, no matter how small. From information supplied by Justice O’Connor to the Senate Judiciary Committee during her confirmation hearings last month, no financial reason for disqualification is apparent. Justice O’Connor told the committee she. would disqualify herself from all cases in which her husband ‘s Phoenix law firm “had ever participated as legal counsel for a party concerning the matter.”
WASHINGTON, Oct. 8 – This much is known so far about Sandra Day O’Connor: She is cool under pressure; she suffers fools gracefully; she has a sense of humor.
So far, this much can be predicted: She will need her sense of humor. The words “first woman Justice” are already cemented as firmly to her name as “reclusive billionaire” and “fugitive financier” were to the names of Howard R. Hughes and Robert L. Vesco.
Ordinarily articulate people seem to be rendered silly by the linguistic implications of a woman’s arrival at the Supreme Court. Since “the brethren” is now obsolete as a collective noun, what to do? “Eight brethren and a cistern,” was the suggestion offered, publicly, by a speaker who introduced Justice O’Connor the other night at the Washington Press Club.
If Justice O’Connor read her press clippings after the Court’s opening session this week, a random sample of news accounts would have told her that she arrived on the bench “dressed in a black, knee-length judicial gown,” that she was “looking small but undaunted behind the long, low bench,” that she put on a pair of glasses, and that she asked her first question 48 minutes into the opening argument “to show she was there to take a full part in the Court’s work.”
A Memory of Samuel Johnson
As the press clippings indicate, the tone of the welcome that Justice O’Connor has received in Washington has been more than a little reminiscent of Samuel Johnson’s remark 218 years ago about the similarity between a “woman’s
WASHINGTON (UPI) – Sandra O’Connor, the Supreme Court’s first woman justice, disqualified herself from three of the 15 cases argued before the court during her first three days on the bench.
Following court custom, Judge O’Connor gave no reason for excusing herself from the cases that were the subject of oral arguments, court spokesman Barrett McGurn said Wednesday.
It is not uncommon for a justice to occasionally disqualify himself from a case, possibly because of a conflict of interest. But three disqualifications by the same judge in three days is highly unusual.
McGurn said: “The tradition is not to state a reason – just to step aside. There are a variety of reasons why justices stand aside, sometimes because of old law firm associations or some other personal contact or other.”
Before joining the court, Judge O’Connor was an Arizona state appeals court judge. Before that, she was the Republican leader of the Arizona state Senate. Her husband practices law in Phoenix.
One of the three cases Judge O’Connor did not sit on the bench for involves an effort by Common Cause to get the court to uphold a $1,000 limit on spending by independent political action committees to support a candidate who accepts public money for his campaign.
It pits Common Cause, a self-styled “citizens’ I lobby,” and the Federal Elections Commission against Sen. Harrison Schmitt, R-N.M., and three political action committees that backed President Reagan.
In her first major public action as a Supreme
WASHINGTON (AP) – Sandra Day O’Connor , in her public debut as a working Supreme Court Justice, wasted little time Monday in asking her first question from the high court bench . “Mr. Silard, may I ask a question?” the court’s first woman member said at 10:46 a .m. , a little more than one-half hour into the first oral argument of the new term . John Silard, arguing a complex offshore oil and natural gas leasing case on behalf of the Energy Action Educational Foundation, shot back : “Just a minute, your honor .” Silard , who also had asked several other justices to hold up on their questions while he finished a point, went on to complete his answer to a previous question from the bench. Then he beckoned to Justice O’Connor . “It isn’t clear, is it, that even if California wins here, that the secretary (of the Interior) would use the bidding system California prefers?” she asked. “The secretary would still be free to use other experiments.” Her question referred to California’s bid in the case to obtain an offshore oil and natural gas leasing system that would yield greater revenue for the state . Silard, waving his finger in the air at Mrs. O’Connor to make his points, then elaborated at length on the various leasing systems available without ever specifically agreeing or disagreeing with Mrs. O’Connor’s line of reasoning . After several questions from other justices , Silard wound up his argument by looking directly a t Justice O’ Connor and saying he hoped the court’s decision
WASHINGTON – Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, newly sworn in as the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court, picked a gathering of reporters for her initial step into the Washington social scene, accepting an invitation to swear in Carol Richards of Gannett News Service as the new president of the Washington Press Club – a club, by the way, which didn’t allow any men as members until 10 years ago.
Everything was moving along smoothly until the afternoon of the event when a White House staffer called Richards to report that Justice O’Connor was “quite adamant” that her remarks at the gathering be off the record – despite the fact that she was invited as “guest speaker” for an audience of more than 300 working journalists. The White House aide said he would do his best to get her to change her mind but a short time later called back to say the judge “simply has to go off the record.”
Before the program got under way, Richards tried to strike a compromise, suggesting that Justice O’Connor put part of her remarks on the record “just to give these people something to report,” and then go off the record for the remainder of her comments. But the judge said absolutely not.
Interestingly, her speech was brief, light and humorous – hardly the substantive, candid stuff of most off-the-records.
Rep. Barber Conable, R-N.Y., the master of ceremonies, also tried – and failed – to change Justice O’Connor’s mind, but his conversation with her may explain her reasoning.
“This is not a smart
No sooner than Sandra Day O’Connor won confirmation by the Sena te than she said she plans to be ” ver y bus y, very fast ,” after she is sworn in later this week . Well, I should hope to kiss a cow. After nearly 200 years, this male bas – tion can use the services of a woman . Oh, I doubt the other eigh t Supreme Court justices will allow her to take part in any judical proceedings because , after all , she is a woman . Hut, idle hands are the Devil ‘s pla y”ma tc, and that ‘s an adage that has ~ell stood the test of time . So I would as sume that her offic e would include kitchen facilities , wher e ,’w could whip up some sn,1cks to ser ve at a cot1ee break for her deliberating eolh•..igUl’S fte r all , ju st ice travels on its stomach. as the saying goes. Justice O’Connor could also earn her money by dusting off the law books and performing other household chores around the court. And, I would strongly suggest Sandra take a course in shorthand so that she can take the minutes of the meetings , and read them back for corrections, additions, and deletions at the next meeting. Speaking of earn ing her mone y, I can only hope the y are not going to pay her as much as they do the male jus tices . A r ecent government survey showed that women , in general receive only 60 as much money as males for doing the same job. Tha t should not surpr ise an ybody, because that ‘s as it should be, and all men will dri nk to tha t. So, I propose Justice O’ Connor re cieve 60 percent of the
High court won’t review death term in Tison case Appeals not exhausted for Randy Greenawalt The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to review the conviction and death sentence of Randy Greenawalt in the case of a Yuma family shotgunned to death during a gang rampage in 1978. Justice Sandra O’Connor of Phoenix, on her first day as an associat,e justice of the Supreme Court, joined the 7-2 majority that declined to review the case. Justices William Brennan and Thurgood Marshall dissented. Greenawalt’s attorney, Robert C. Brown of Casa Grande, said the appeal process is not over. Greenawalt still can take his appeal to the high court by appealing through lower federal courts. Brown said he had not talked with Greenawalt but assumed the appeal would be pursued. Greenawalt and Ricky and Raymond Tison were sentenced to death in 1979 for the murders of Marine Sgt. John F. Lyons; his wife, Donnelda; his 22-month-old son Christopher; and his niece, Teresa Jo Marie Tyson of Las Vegas, Nev. The four were killed aft.er Raymond, Ricky and their brother, Donald, helped their father, Gary, and Greenawalt escape from Arizona State Prison on July 30, 1978. The Tison gang committed the murders north of Yuma to obtain the Lyons’ car after the gang’s car had been disabled. Donald Tison was killed in a shootout near Casa Grande on Aug. 11, 1978. His father died of exposure in the desert while trying to elude pursuers. Brown said Greenawalt’s appeal was based on more than 20 legal questions including
WASHINGTON (AP) – It was a dramatic moment in American history the first time a woman has served on the bench of the U.S. Supreme Court – but Sandra Day O’Connor handled it with the same aplomb she exhibited during her Senate confirmation hearings. As the court began its new term Monday, the 51-year-old former Arizona appeals court judge showed no reluctance in making her public debut as a working Supreme Court justice. Her first inquiry from the bench – regarding a complex offshore oil and natural gas leasing case – came little more than a half hour into the first oral argument. “Mr. Silard, may I ask a question ?” Justice O’Connor said at 10: 46 a.m, John Silard, arguing on behalf of the Energy Action Educational Foundation, already had asked several other justices to delay their questions until he finished a point. He did the same with the court’s 102nd justice, saying: “Just a minute, your honor.” After answering a previous question from the bench, Silard invited O’Connor to proceed. “It isn’t clear, is it, that even if California wins here, that the secretary (of the Interior) would use the bidding system California prefers,” she asked. “The secretary would still be free to use other experiments.” Her question referred to California’s bid in the case to obtain an offshore oil and natural gas leasing system that would yield greater revenue for the state. The views of the educational foundation Silard represents are essentially the same as those held by the state of California.
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Monday refused to review lower court decisions barring voluntary prayer at “optional” assemblies in the Chandler Unified School District south of Phoenix. Chandler High School Principal Howard Conley said he was disappointed by the decision. “I would suppose this is the end of the prayer issue. You can’t go any higher than the Supreme Court. We’ll certainly abide by the Supreme Court,” he said. The high court, by refusing to review the case, upheld a 1979 court ruling. Prayers were prohibited on constitutional grounds by U.S. District Judge Carl A. Muecke, who cited a 1962 Supreme Court ruling that outlawed school sponsorship of prayers. Muecke’s ruling was upheld by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court last May. The Chandler controversy originated in 1978 when Theresa Collins, the mother of two students, challenged the school’s practice of allowing the student council to open school assemblies with a prayer. The practice of opening the morning assemblies with voluntary prayer went on at the school from at least 1976-77, when Conley took over as principal, to March 1979 when the District Court made its ruling. Conley said he thought the Supreme Court might allow the prayers in Chandler High School because of the “different way” they were presented at the school. Prayers were given during non-mandatory assemblies by decision of the students, he said. “Our assemblies are organized, developed and administered by students. “It was not a state prayer, Methodist
WASHINGTON (AP) – Sandra Day O’Connor, in her public debut as a working Supreme Court Justice, wasted little time Monday in asking her first question from the high court bench. “Mr. Silard, may I ask a question?” the court’s first woman member said at 10:46 a.m., a little more than one-half hour into the first oral argument of the new term. John Silard, arguing a complex offshore oil and natural gas leasing case on behalf of the Energy Adion Educational Foundation, shot back: “Just a minute, your honor.” Silard, who also had asked several other justices to hold up on questions while he finished a point, went on to complete his answer to a previous question ltom the bench. Then he beckoned to Justice O’Connor, who said “It isn’t .clear, is it, that even if California wins here, that the secretary (of the Interior) would use the bidding system California prefers. The secretary would still be free to use other experiments.” Her query referred to California’a bid in the case to obtain an offshore oil and natural gas leasing system that would yield greater revenue for the state. Silard, Waving his finger in the air at Mrs. O’Connor to make his points, then elaborated at length on the various leasing systems available Without specifically agreeing or disagreeing with Mrs. O’Connor’s line of reasoning.
After several questions from other justices, Silard wound up his argument by looking directly at Justice O’Connor and saying he hoped the court’s decision would grant “a new life to
WASHINGTON – Sandra Day O’Connor today served her first working day on the bench as the first woman on the United States Supreme Court. The 51-year-old former Arizona appeals court judge, state court trial judge and Arizona Senate majority leader, took her oath of office Sept. 25. She promised then to be “very busy, very fast” and spent last week reviewing cases with the court’s other justices. But today was her first working day on the bench hearing arguments. Justice O’Connor – as she will be addressed by her eight brethren on the nation’s highest court – occupies the seat traditionally taken by the court’s most junior justice, to the far right of the bench u viewed from the courtroom. After Mrs . O’Connor’s swearing-in ceremony, Chief Justice Warren E. Burger announced that she would take over the supervisory duties of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee. Mrs. O’Connor was confirmed by the Senate Sept. 21 In a victory both for her and for Ronald Reagan the first president to nomirmte a woman to the Supreme Court. Although there had been considerable debate before the confirmation vote, particularly on Mrs. O’Connor’s previous position on abortion, when the day came she was approved unanimously .
The hottest ticket in town next month is likely to be one for the shindig Gov. Bruce Babbitt is tossing for Supreme Court Justice Sandra O’Connor Nov. 25 at the Arizona Biltmore. About 2,000 invitations have been sent out for the black-tie gala, but only 850 can be accepted. It is a first-come, first-seated affair, and letters of regret have already been prepared for those not acting fast enough. Organizers of the banquet are privately hoping President Reagan sends regards only and stays m Washington for the holidays. The security arrangements for a presidential visit would toss a monkey wrench in the best-laid plans, which were hush-hush – until now, at least. The dinner will cap a daylong Phoenix and Arizona celebration honoring the first woman to serve on the high court. Plans are in the works for a ceremony in the state Capitol, where Justice O’Connor once served as a state senator, and a combined city of Phoenix and Junior League luncheon at the Lath House, which is next to the Rosson House in Heritage Square.
In her first day as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, Sandra O’Connor of Phoenix joined the majority in declining to review the death sentence of convicted Arizona murderer Randy Greenawalt, a court spokesman said. …
Mark Henning, banker, Phoenix
My heroine is Sandra O’Connor. I’ve read so much about her since her nomination to the Supreme Court, and she really persevered to get where she is today. I read that when she got out of law school and applied for a job, she was offered a secretarial position. Imagine that.
Where does the Senate, the Moral Majority or anyone get their nerve to insist that an appointee to the Supreme Court or to any position has to agree with them on every issue whether it be abortion or anything else? The deficiencies in our form of government were obvious after witnessing the extreme pressure put on Sandra O’Connor from a bunch of idiots who insist that everyone has to think their way. And these people were appointed by us to preserve our rights and freedoms!
HAIG LORDIGYAN Paradise Valley
Editor:
I could not help but think of Arizona’s Sandra O’Connor and how she must have felt, honored by the president of the United States, a Rose Garden reception, and a White House luncheon. This great and most deserved honor, could only be topped by the endorsement of the great Jerry Falwell. Personally, I would rather be bitten by a Cobra. MEL WILLIAMS Mesa
BOSTON – Last Friday, Sandra O’Connor joined The Brethren. And an elite sisterhood . Last Friday, Sandra O’Connor became the 102nd Supreme Court Justice . And the rirst woman Justice. As all the speeches about barrier-breaking, history-making, inner-circle-integrating end. she is settling down to two of the hardest roles in the cowitry: Supreme Court Justice and First Woman. IN SOME WAYS, this woman who won her robe with the unanimous consent of thf – ate and the goodwill of the people, wi1 ” approval of conservatives and the best wishe:. of the women’s rights activists, faces the issues shared by any woman who has ever been the first, the exception, the only, the other . How do you deal with the extra burdens? How do you live with the attention and the expectations? With the demands of conscience and history? O’Connor wants to be remembered as a good Justice, but she will be judged, in large part, as a Woman Justice . Her opinions will be scrutinized for signs of her sex; her behavior will be analyzed for clues of her kind . Like every other first woman , she will be visible and vulnerable, the one Justice in the photograph whom everyone can name . She will be criticized if she doesn’t ” think like a male Justice” and criticized if she does . Someone will surely want her to prove that a woman on the bench makes a difference, and someone else will want her to prove that women on the bench are no different It is, as Margaret Hennig, dean of the Graduate School of Business Management
WASHINGTO N – When the Supreme Court begins its 1981-82 term Oct. 5, it will ag, n find itself poised on the cuttmg edge between the status quo and a new political order. As the Reagan administration moves to reduce the sweep of much of the landmark legislation enacted in the 1960s and 1970s, the court will review many of those same laws in the 102 cases already set for argument in the new term. The justices also are likely to address a number of perennially touchy issues, including school busing, church-state separation, the death penalty and the obligation of a state to educate children of illegal aliens. President Reagan’s policies are not directly at issue in most of the cases, but the way in which the justices resolve the issues could accelerate or brake the administration’s momentum in certain areas. Historically, the court has served as a balance wheel within the federal system . It has moved to the “conservative ” side when Congress or the president shifted sharply to the left, as in the early New Deal days. And the rulings in the last term indicate the court may be taking a more liberal stance on certain issues as the Reagan administration and the 97th Congress move to the right. For example, in the last term, the justices ruled repeatedly in favor of broad federal regulatory power – directly countering a major administration thrust . The Reagan regime already has sharply reversed the government ‘s position on two key issues before the court , school busing and the education
Sandra O’Connor, formally resigning from the Arizona Court of Appeals, attributed her appointment as the first woman U.S. Supreme Court justice to Gov. Bruce Babbitt and the women “of yesterday and today.” O’Connor, whose nomination to the Supreme Court was confirmed 99-0 by the Senate Sept. 21, resigned, effective immediately, in a letter submitted to Babbitt. She recalled Babbitt, a Democrat, appointed her to the Appeals Court on Dec. 4, 1979 and said she doubted she would have received the Supreme Court nomination had it not been for that appointment. “You appointed me to the office I now leave,” she told Babbitt. “You appointed me not only despite the [act that we belong to two different political parties, but fully aware that my appointment did not seem politic to certain of your advisors. “I believe I would not have been named to the United States Supreme Court unless I had been a sitt_ing appellate court judge. Thus, but for your action, I would today be a Superior Court judge in Maricopa County rather than a United State Supreme Court justice in Washington. “If, indeed I will walk across the pages of history, then you played a most vital role in starting me on my journey. I thank you for that start.” O’Connor, a Superior Court judge from 1975 until she was appointed by Babbitt to the Appeals Court said she was accepting her new position and resigning from old one with mixed emotions. “I have been greatly honored by my appointment to the Supreme Court,” she said. “I have
Last Friday , Sandra O’Connor j(,>ined The Brethren. And an elite sisterhood. Last Friday, Sandra O’Connor became the 102nd Supreme Court Justice. And the first woman Justice. As. all the speeehes about barrierbreaking, history-makiRg, inner-circle-integrating enu, she is settling down to two of the hardest roles in the country: Supreme Court Justice and First Woman. In some ways, this woman who won her robe with the unanimous consent of the Senate and the goodwill of the people, with the approval of conservatives and the best wishes of the women’s rights activists, faces the issues shared by any woman who has ever been the first, the exception, the only, the other. How do you deal with the extra burdens? How do you live with the attention and the expectations? With the demands of conscience and history? Fine service O’Connor wants to be remembered as a good justice, but she will be judged, in large part, as a Woman Justice. Her opinions will be scrutinized for signs of her sex; her behavior will be analyzed for clues of her kind. Like every other first woman, she will be visible and vulnerable, the one justice in the photograph whom everyone can name. She will be criticized if she doesn’t “think like a male justice” and criticized if she does. Someone will surely want her to prove that a woman on the bench makes a difference, and someone else will want her to prove that women on the bench are no different. It is, as Margaret Hennig, dean of the Graduate School of Business Management
WASHINGTON (AP) -Somewhere, logic got lost in the debate over Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s appointment to the Supreme Court. She is, after all, a conservative Republican, her conservative detractors notwithstanding. She takes to the court a conservative’s reverence for precedent and letterof-the Constitution-interpretation of the law. Yet conservatives who claim to share that philosophy were critical of her nomination, and some remained skeptical even as they joined in unanimous Senate confirmation of the first woman justice. Single-issue politics-in this case, the issue was abortion-can distort a debate that way. AFTER failing to get Mrs. O’Connor’s assurance that she would act to …
proximately 200 years of the court, has been accurately able to predict what a justice of the Supreme Court would be like,” said Sen. Joseph Biden Jr., DDel. Biden said the debate unfolded as it did because nowadays it is liberals, not conservatives, who want strict constructionists on the federal bench. That’s because liberals do not want to overturn decisions of the Warren Court. He said what Helms and his conservative allies really want is activist judges. “If Judge O’Connor is not an activist, she has problems , because she is not going to be overturning the decisions that they-and I on occasion-sometimes find odious, obnoxious or totally reprehensible, ” said Biden, who also opposes the abortion decision. Judicial conservatism and political conservatism , particularly that of the New Right
A ccording to Sandra O’Connor, the first woman justice of the Supreme Court, “a court’s duty is to interpret laws and test them against the constitution – not to usurp the duties of the legislative and executive branches.” Similarly, this newspaper’s role in the community is to report facts and opinions which reflect the wide spectrwn of interests. Our industry is referred to as a fourth estate, a quasi branch of gov~rnment. Thomas Jefferson went so far as to say, “Given a choice between a government .without a newspaper or a newspaper without a government, I would not hesitate for a moment to choose the latter.” !o fulfill our community responsibility of reporting the news, this newspaper must be accessible both to low-profile groups and the community movers and shakers. !he. ~irst group, which includes the elderly, handicapped, mmorities, youth, and the unborn, often do not get a fair shake because they have difficulty obtaining access to media sources. In contrast, the movers and shakers have no difficulty with media access and are heard from often. In the interest of fairness, I feel it is our responsibility to assist as o~ten ~s we c~ th~e ~orities which find it difficult to get a public voice. This attitude IS part of our commwlity responsibility and does not represent a preference on our part for any particular group or organization.
The elevation of a woman, Sandra Day O’Connor, to the U.S. Supreme Court for the first time has sparked renewed concern as to whether women judges can be objective on the bench, particularly in dealing with such highly emotional and female-oriented issues as abortion and rape. Even the chief justice of that high court is alleged to have expressed reservations in this regard. This erroneous and presumptuous apprehension is premised on sexually stereotypical thinking which historically has permeated so much of our male-dominated culture, including the legal and judicial professions. Women judges, like those of the male sex, have the intellect, education and experience to decide the thousands of civil and criminal cases that come before them on the facts and the applicable law. Indeed, being acutely aware of their high visibility, women are particularly sensitive to their judicial role. Women judges are thus less likely than entrenched and secure male judges to indulge biases in deciding cases. It is a startling revelation that over the decades so few among us have questioned the objectivity of white Anglo-Saxon male judges who have been presiding over us all, male and female, of every color and ethnic background. Two male law professors who had the temerity to address the subject in the N.Y.U. Law Review in 1971 found, as might be expected, that male judges bring to the bench a variety of prejudices stemming from their sexual, ideological, cultural, ethnic, religious, economic
WASHINGTON (AP) – Her place in American history secure, Sandra Day O’Connor gets down to work Monday, her public notoriety as the first woman on the Supreme Court giving way to the private, workaday life of her eight fellow justices. Sworn in Friday as the high court’s 102nd member, she will meet with her colleagues Monday for a week of closed-door deliberations in anticipation of the Oct. 5 opening of the 1981-82 term. Even before she joined the court, Justice O’Connor told reporters she expected to become “very busy, very fast” in trying to master the 102 cases already scheduled for full study and decision. In addition, the court on Oct. 5 is expected to issue orders – most of them grants or denials of review for appeals left pending last July or those that arrived during the summer recess – in as many as 1,000 cases. Justice O’Connor inherits three law clerks who have spent most of the summer previewing those cases. As of Friday, the three young lawyers selected nearly a year ago to spend the coming term working for now-retired Justice Potter Stewart will work for Justice O’Connor. She has hired a lawyer from her husband’s Phoenix law firm to be a fourth clerk. Justice O’Connor also inherits some direct responsibility from the man she succeeds in the lifetime post. She will serve as circuit justice for the 6th federal judicial circuit, handling emergency matters from Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee. Justice O’Connor is moving into the chambers used until recently by
She’s been called “extraordinary,” “outstanding,” “truly outstanding” and “the best thing since Girl Scout cookies.” Speechmakers in the Senate called her appointment “historic,” “truly historic,” “a landmark,” “monumental.” It is just possible that sometimes Sandra D. O’Connor may not recognize the woman she reads about and sees on television so often these days. That is because her history and her testimony during her confirmation hearings suggest that she has arrived where she is by being relatively uncontroversial, by being low-keyed, by appreciating the fine detail rather than the cosmic sweep, by keeping out of trouble, rather than by making trouble. Her achievements have been solid. But no one who knows them calls them brilliant or inspired. In that respect, she is no different than many other appointees to the U.S. Supreme Court. And if she follows the example of many of them, it may be that she will not be heard from in any dramatic way for some time. She may burrow into the marble palace for months or years before making a mark. Then again, she could begin in a burst of glory. But that would not be her way. The court, the late Chief Justice Harlan Fiske Stone once said, is “nine quiet old boys.” Make that eight quiet men and one probably very quiet woman. She appeared uncomfortable at the beginning. When she first came to town, she seemed visibly stunned, even a bit shaken, by all the attention she was getting. “I’ve never seen so many reporters, cameras, all in one
Sandra Day O’Connor took her seat today as the 102nd Justice and the first woman to serve on the United States Supreme Court.
President Reagan, who fulfilled a campaign promise to name a woman to the Court by nominating the 51-year-old Arizona judge, attended the brief ceremony in the courtroom. It was the first time a President had visited the Supreme Court since President Ford attended Associate Justice John Paul Stevens’ swearing-in ceremony in 1975.
President Reagan and Judge O’Connor entered the courtroom simultaneously but from opposite sides a few minutes past 2 o’clock. Judge O’Connor was escorted to a ceremonial chair, in the well of the courtroom below the bench, that was used in the Court’s early years by Chief Justice John Marshall. The eight members of the Court took their seats on the bench moments later. Spectators Fill Courtroom
The ceremony, formally known as an investiture, lasted barely 10 minutes. The courtroom was filled well beyond its 400-seat capacity with Judge O’Connor’s family and friends and with Government officials, including a number of Senators. The Senate confirmed Judge O’Connor on Tuesday by a vote of 99 to 0.
Potter Stewart, whose retirement from the Court in July paved the way for today’s event, watched from a seat at the side of the courtroom.
Attorney General William French Smith presented to the Court the official document, signed by President Reagan, commissioning Judge O’Connor as an Associate Justice. Alexander L. Stevas, clerk of the
WASHINGTON (AP) – In a six-minute ceremony, Sandra Day O’Connor broke through two centuries of male exclusivity and donned her robe Friday as an associate justice of the Supreme Court. With President Reagan, her family and 500 other guests looking on, Mrs. O’Connor stood beside Chief Justice Warren E. Burger and promised to “support and defend the Constitution” and faithfully carry out her duties. “On behalf of all the members of the court and retired Justice Potter Stewart, it is a pleasure to extend to you a very warm welcome to the court and to wish you a very long life and a long and happy career in our common calling,” Burger said in welcoming the court’s newest member and its first woman. Mrs. O’Connor, who will be ad dressed by her brethren as “Justice O’Connor” – no courtesy title – was preceded by 101 men, dating to the court’s founding in 1790. The ceremony got under way late, at 2:12 p.m., and was over six minutes later. Sitting across from Justice O’Connor in the front of the courtroom were President and Nancy Reagan; her husband, Phoenix lawyer John J. O’Connor III; and sons Scott, 23, Brian, 21, and Jay, 20. There, too, were her parents, Harry and Ada Mae Day. Next to the president was retired Justice Stewart, whose retirement last July 3 opened the way for Reagan to keep his campaign promise to nominate the first woman to the high court. She had earlier told news reporters that she felt “just great” about taking her place in history. The ceremony began as Mrs.
WASHINGTON – The consensus was that Sandra Day O’Connor’s judicial robe, black and simple, was simply too short . The robe, one from her days as an Arizona Appeals Court judge, demurely covered the knee. But observers – read that the cynical members of the Washington press corps – judged the robe as too short for a member of the nation’s highest court. For one thing, the robe was just a hair shorter than her dress, allowing a fraction of her pink hem to peek from beneath the austere garment. Secondly, the robe looked strangely mini as Justice O’Connor posed for pictures with her family, President and Mrs. Reagan and Chief Justice Warren E. Burger and his wife, Elvera. In contrast, Burger looked immensely judicial. His sweeping black robe comes to midcalf.
WASHINGTON – In a six-minute ceremony, Sandra Day O’Connor broke through two centuries of male exclusivity and donned her robe Friday as an associate justice of the Supreme Court. With President Reagan, her family and 500 others watching, O’Connor stood beside Chief Justice Warren E. Burger and promised to “support and defend the Constitution” and faithfully carry out her duties. “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.” 9’Connor, who will be addressed by her brethren as “Justice _O’Connor” – no courtesy title – was preceded by 101 men, dating to the court’s founding in 1790. The court’s members were previously known as “Mr. Justice,” as in “Mr. Justice Stewart.” However, last November they dropped that title in favor of simply “Justice.” It was assumed that the change anticipated the naming of the first woman to the high court. . EARLIER, O’CONNOR and her husband, Pheonix attorney John J. O’Connor III, rode with the president and first lady Nancy Reagan up Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House to the Supreme Court, just east of the Capitol. The short ceremony started late, at 2:12 p.m. Sitting across from Justice O’Connor in the front of the courtroom were the Reagans, O’Connor’s husband and O’Connor sons Scott, 23, Brian, 21, and Jay, 20. Nearby were her parents, Harry and Ada Mae Day. Next to the president was Potter Stewart, whose retirement last July
WASHINGTON – Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, feeling “just great” about taking her place in history, is ready to begin work as the first woman on the Supreme Court. As President Reagan and 500 other spectators looked on, Justice Connor was sworn in Friday as the high court’s newest membei.:. On Monday, Justice O’Connor and her eight colleagues will begin a week of closed-door discussions on the more than 1,000 cases that have been building up over the summer. THE NEW JUSTICE has told reporters that she will be taking part in the conferences as the court gets ready for the Oct. 5 opening of its 1981-82 term. The court has been asked to review, among other issues, the legality of denying pre-trial freedom to all people accused of certain crimes; a state law making it a crime to “promote” non-obscene sexual performances by children; and a case that followed the death of Kerr-McGee Corp. employee Karen G. Silkwood, who was active in labor organizing efforts 1 at the plutonium plant and investigating allegedly unsafe conditions. But Friday, Justice O’Connor and her family enjoyed one last day of pomp and ceremony, capping her transition frolll an Arizo!)a appeals court judge to Supreme Court justice that began ‘ with Reagan’s announcement of her selection last July 7. WITH REAGAN and his wife, Nancy, sitting in 1 the front of the courtroom, Justice O’Connor swore her allegiance to the Constitution, and, in just a six• minute ceremony, ended a 191-year history of male exclusivity on the
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Maybe Congress could appropriate some money, Burger sugeested To some onlookers, the scene was life imitating art, a scene out of “First Monday In October .” a cur – rent comic film about the first woman justice . O’Connor, at 51, also is the youngest justice on a court dominated by men well past normal retirement age. Five of the nine justices, appointed by Presidents Dwight Eisenhower. Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, are over 70. O’Connor, having won the confirmation plaudits of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the full Senate by votes of 17–0 and 99-0, will find little unanimity among her new male colleagues on the most controversial issues of the day. For years. the justices have been split, often with a sinele vote -separ ating them, on cases involving school desegregation, affirmative J action, abortion, state aid to reli- – gion, obscenity , government regula- , tion and the death penalty 1 A conservative on many issues, O’Connor is expected to make little difference in the court’s fraeile balance because she replaces the retired Potter Stewart, who voted conservatively on school busing, affirmative action, school prayer, health and safety regulations and other bitterly debated subjects .
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
WASIIlNGTON – In a six-minute ceremony, Arizona Judge Sandra Day O’Connor broke through two centuries of male exclusivity and donned her robe Friday as an associate justice of the Supreme Court. With President Reagan, her family and 500 guests looking on, O’Connor stood beside Chief Justice Warren E. Burger and promised to “support and defend the Constitution” and faithfully carry out her duties. “On behalf of all the members of the court and retired Justice Potter Stewart, it is a pleasure to extend to you a very wann welcome to the court and to wish you a very long life and a long and happy career in our common calling,” Burger said in welcoming the court’s newest member and its first woman. O’Connor, who will be addressed by her brethren as “Justice O’Connor” – no courtesy title – was preceded by 101 men, dating to the court’s founding in 1790. Sitting across from Justice O’Connor in the front of the courtroom were President and Nancy Reagan, her husband, Phoenix lawyer John J. O’Connor III, and sons Scott, 23, Brian, 21, and Jay, 20. There, too, were her parents, Harry and Ada Mae Day. She earlier had told news reporters that she felt “just great” about taking “‘ler place in history. ceremony began as O’Connor, 51, entered the courtroom shortly after 2 p.m. and sat m front of her eight colleagues-to-be in the 19th~entury chair once occupied by Chief Justice John Marshall, whose decisions secured the position of the Supreme Court in American government. Attorney General William
Sandra D. O’Connor became an associate justice of the Supreme Court yesterday, the first woman in U.S. history to bear that title. Chief Justice Warren E. Burger administered the constitutional oath of office at 2:16 p.m. before about 400 dignitaries and friends of the O’Connor family who packed the mammoth Supreme Court chamber. “Justice O’Connor, welcome,” Burger said simply. Then, after peing helped into her black judge’s robe, O’Connor took the chair assigned to her by seniority, the one on the end of the bench to Burger’s extreme left. Sitting next to her was her Stanford law school classmate, Justice William H. Rehnquist. From the raised bench, where no woman has sat in the 191-year history of the Supreme Court, she smiled down on President Reagan just below her. O’Connor is the 102nd justice and the first appointment to the court by Reagan. At 51, O’Connor is the youngest member of the court, which has five justices over 70. Her first public appearance at the court came at noon yesterday. She and Burger, his snow-white hair glistening in the sun, descended the front steps to pose for pictures. Burger clutched her arm and commented to reporters that “You’ve never seen me with a better-looking justice.” O’Connor’s husband, three sons and mother and father joined them on the court plaza for the pictures. She shouted to a friend to take pictures of the photographers for her scrapbook. She then went inside to take her first oath of the day, the “judicial oath,” which calls
WASHINGTON (AP) – Sandra Day O’Connor raised her right hand and swore the oath of office today as the 102nd American – and the first woman – to sit on the Supreme Court. Vowing to “do equal right to the poor and to the rich,” the former Arizona legislator and appeals court judge became Justice O’Connor during a brief ceremony in the marble and mahogany courtroom of the nation’s highest court. President Reagan, who broke a 191-year tradition when he appointed O’Connor to the lifetime position, was among the 500 guests who watched Chief Justice Warren E. Burger administer the oath of office. Also on hand was retired associate justice Potter Stewart, whom O’Connor replaced. Two hours earlier, O’Connor had posed for photographers and television camera crews in the brilliant sunlight of the court’s massive front plaza. Burger, who accompanied her, asked photographers, “You’ve never seen me with a better looking justice, have you?” Asked how she felt on the threshold of history, O’Connor smiled and replied, “Just great.” She was dressed in the robe she wore as a state judge. “I’ll buy a new one eventually,” she said. “They do get old, you know. The arms get all worn out.” Burger suggested Congress might be willing to appropriate funds for a new robe . O’Connor, her arm held by Burger, posed with her parents , Harry and Ada Mae Day; her husband, John; and their three sons . O’Connor appeared relaxed, and laughed heartily as a close family friend, former Phoenix Mayor John Driggs ,
WASHINGTON (AP) – Sandra Day O’Connor raised her right hand and swore the oath of office today as the 102nd American – and the first woman – to sit on the Supreme Court. Justice O’Connor, an Arizona appeals court judge before she was picked to become an associate justice of the nation’s highest court, promised to uphold the Constitution and “faithfully discharge the duties of my office.” Asked by Chief Justice Warren E. Burger if she were ready to take her oath, Mrs. O’Connor replied in a steady voice: “I am.” With her right hand aloft and her left hand on a Bible, Mrs. O’Connor completed the oath flawlessly. Burger was the first to call her “Justice O’Connor” as he welcomed her to the court. Two hours before her swearing-in, Mrs. O’Connor posed for photographers and television camera crews in the brilliant sunlight of the court’s massive front plaza. She was accompanied by Burger, who asked photographers, “You’ve never seen me with a better looking justice, have you?” She was dressed in the robe she wore as a state judge. “I’ll buy a new one eventually,” she said. “They do get old, you know. The arms get all worn out.” The chief justice suggested that Congress might be willing to appropriate funds for a new robe. Mrs. O’Connor, her arm held by Burger, posed with her parents, Harry and Ada Mae Day; her husband, John; and their three sons. Mrs. O’Connor appeared relaxed, and laughed heartily as a close family friend, former Phoenix Mayor John. Driggs, turned the tables on reporters
WASHINGTON (AP) – Sandra Day O’Connor raised her right hand and swore the oath of office today as the first woman to sit on the Supreme Court. Vowing to “do equal right to the poor and to the rich,’ ‘ the former Arizona legislator and appeals court judge became Justice O’Connor during a brief ceremony in the marble and mahogany courtroom of the nation’s highest court. President Reagan was among the 500 guests who watched Chief Justice Warren Burger administer the oath of office. Also on hand was retired associate justice Potter Stewart, whom Mrs. O’Connor replaced. Following a court tradition, Mrs. O’Connor took two oaths, one at a private meeting of the justices and the other in the courtroom. The timing of her swearing in allows her to participate in the week-long conference the justices will start Monday in anticipation of the Oct. 5 opening of the court’s 1981-82 term. Reagan broke a 191-year, all-male tradition when he appointed Mrs . O’Connor to the lifetime job.
WASHINGTON – Sandra O’Connor, on the eve of her historic ascendancy to the nation’s highest court; was honored Thursday by President Reagan during a Rose Garden reception and at a White House luncheon. Judge O’Connor – who today will become the 102nd member and first woman on the Supreme Court – stood beaming in the brilliant sunshine outside the Oval Office as Reagan promised he will strive to “enhance the prestige and quality of the federal bench.” Judge O’Connor will take two oaths today from Chief Justice Warren Burger, the first a “constitutional oath” in the justices’ conference room – the private sanctum where the members of the court meet to hammer out the nuances of the law of the land. That will be followed by a “judicial oath” administered in a public ceremony at 2 p.m. in the huge, marble-columned courtroom which will be filled with court personnel, the O’Connor family, reporters, and dignitaries, including the president.
WASHINGTON – Sandra Day O’Connor raised her right hand and swore the oath of office today as the 102nd American – and the first woman – to sit on the Supreme Court.
Vowing to “do equal right to the poor and to the rich .” the former Arizona legislator and appeals court judge became .Justice O’Connor during a brief ceremony in the marble and mahogany courtroom of the nation’s highest court. President Reagan. who broke a 191-year tradition when he appointed Mrs. O’Connor to the lifetime position. was among the 500 guests who watched Chief Justice Warren E. Burger administer the oath of office. Also on hand was retired associate justice Potter Stewart, whom Mrs . O’Connor replaced. Two hours earlier, Mrs. O’Connor had …
Burger. who accompanied her. asked photographers . “You’ve never seen me with a better looking justice. have you?” …
:-,ne was dressed in the robe she wore as a state judge. “I’ll buy a new one eventually,” she said . ‘”They do get old. you know. The arms get all worn out.” Burger suggested Congress might be willing to appropriate funds for a new robe. Mrs. O’Connor, her arm held by Burger, posed with her parents. Harry and Ada Mae Dav : her husband . .John; and their three sons
WASHINGTON (AP) – Sandra W.R JON Day O’Connor raised her right hand and swore the oath of office today as the 102nd American – and the first woman – to sit on the Supreme Court. Justice O’Connor, an Arizona appeals court judge before she was picked to become an associate justice of the nation’s highest court, promised to uphold the Constitution and “faithfully discharge the duties of my office.” Asked by Burger if she were ready to take her oath, Mrs. O’Connor replied in a steady voice: “I am.” With her right hand aloft and her left hand on a Bible, Mrs. O’Connor completed the oath flawlessly. Burger was the first to call her “Justice O’Connor” as he welcomed her to the court. President Reagan, who broke a 191-year, all-male tradition when he appointed Justice O’Connor to the lifetime job, was among more than 500 people present as Chief Justice Warren E. Burger administered the oath of office. The ceremony began as Mrs. O’Connor was ushered into the marble and mahogany courtroom and was seated before the bench in a chair used by Chief Justice John Marshall during his 1801- 1835 tenure. After taking the oath, Justice O’Connor was helped into her judicial robe and led to the seat traditionally occupied by the court’s most junior justice – to the far right of the bench as viewed from the courtroom. In a switch from the 1975 swearing-in of Justice John Paul Stevens, the oath administered in the courtroom to Mrs. O’Connor was one Stevens and at least two of his predecessors had
Th e sweari ng-in of Sandra Day O’Connor at 2 p.m. today will he one of the most private of public events , in keeping with the Supreme Court’ s mode of operati on. Scores of people telephonin g t he courl yesterd ay to find out l1ow they could watch the ceremony were told that they couldn ‘t . No ordinary memb er of the publi c will be admitted. Barret t McGum , Suprem e Court spokesman, said that the comtroom could accommodat e only VIPs , friend8 of the O’Con – nors and repmtet’S covering the event. ln addi tion, no television cameras, tap e recorders or photographe1s will he permitted in the Supr eme Court chambet for the historic event. ‘l’h e ban, McGum said , was simply an extension of the policy prohibiting audio and vistutl recmding of anything that goes on in tha t chamber. [Photo caption: The president with Chief Justice Warren E. Burger and Justice-designate Sandra O’Connor at White House reception yesterday]
Editor: Frances R. Haye’s letter about Judge Sandra O’Connor’s stand on abortion states that “abortion on demand is wrong, or it isn’t.” I cannot agree that the issue is so clear-cut or so simple. For instance when it is a case of a young woman taking drugs, paying no attention to good nutrition rules for pregnancy, and absolutely not wanting the baby, the chances are very slim that that baby will be normal at birth or will ever be wanted as an adoptive child. Therefore, it will most likely always have to be cared for by government institutions. Does she want that? MRS. FRANK P. WALKER Sun City
Editor: We Arizona folks are mighty proud of our “native” daughter Sandra O’Connor. She is the epitome of a lady fully capable to don the robes of the Supreme Court with dignity and honor. RUTH DEMOPLOS Phoenix Editor: The fumings of the senatorial lunatic fringe against Mrs. O’Connor’s nomination, and that of the more idiotic gang of so-called witnesses remind me of a paragraph in Robinson & Breasted’s history book which I read at high school ‘way back in 1914. The authors tell of a plumber on a visit to the Parthenon . . He was so busy criticizing the faulty drains that he missed entirely the majesty and loftiness of the architecture. SYLVANUS PETERS Sun City
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – Moral Majority leader Jerry Falwell said Thursday night he thinks Judge Sandra O’Connor will make a good addition to the U.S. Supreme Court. “I may grow to rue these words, but (from) what I heard in the (Senate) hearings and what my friends op the panel said, I think she is going to make a good justice,” Falwell said. The controversial religious-political leader was in southern Florida to deliver a speech to a meeting of the Baptist Bible Fellowship International. Asked to comment on Sen. Barry Goldwater’s attack on him in a recent speech, Falwell said the Arizona Republican’s problem is that “he’s getting older” and “no longer is the leading conservative in the United States.” “When he (Goldwater) says that religion has no part of public policy, he’s contradicting statements made by Thomas Jefferson,” Falwell added. “He is reacting adversely to someone else taking away where the mantle used to be. I think instead of kicking his constituents in the posterior, he should be writing his memoirs.” After his Hollywood appearance, Falwell planned to fly to Freeport, Bahamas, where the Moral Majority is meeting to map a nationwide anti-pornography campaign.
WASHINGTON (AP) – Sandra Day O’Con nor ra ised her ri ght ha nd an d swo re the oath of offic e today as the 102nd Americ an – and the first woman – to sit on the Supreme Court. Vowing to “do equal right to the poor and to the r ich ,” the former Ari zona legisla tor and appeals court judge be came Justice O’Conn or dur ing a br ief ceremony in the marble and mahogan y courtroom of the nati on ‘s highes t cou rt. Presiden t Reagan , who broke a 191- year trad ition when he appo inted Mrs. O’Connor to the lifetime positio n, was a mong the 500 gues ts wh o wa tc h ed Chief Justice Warren E. Bur ger adm inister the oath of office , Also on hand wa s retired as soci a te ju sti ce Potter Stewart , whom Mrs . O’Connor repla ced . Two hours earlier , Mrs. O’Con nor had posed for-photographers an d tele vi• sion camera crews in the brillian t sun• light of the court’s mass ive fron t plaza. Burger, who accompan ied her , asked photographers , “Yo u’v e ne ve r seen me with a better looking jus ti ce , have you ?” Asked ho w sh e felt on the thresh- . old of histor y, Mr s. O’Connor sm iled and rep lied , “Jus t gre at.” She was dre ssed in the robe she wore as a state ju dge. “I’ ll bu y a new on e even tually ,” she said. “They do get old, you know . The arm s get a ll worn out.” Burger sugge sted Congress migh t be willi ng to appr opr iat e fun ds for a new robe . Mr s. O’Con no r , he r a r m held by Burge r, posed with her parents , Ha rry and Ada Mae Da y; her hu sband , J
…
Then followed the special session of the high court, which began with the traditional rap of the gavel by Court Marshal Alfred Wong and the entrance of the eight black-robed justices. Mrs. O’Connor sat in the “well” of the courtroom at the start of the ceremony, in a chair used by Chief Justice John Marshall more than 150 years ago. Reagan sat on the other …
Harry Day, left his wheelchair and walked with the aid of a cane. Wearing the black, knee-length robe from her days as an Arizona appeals court judge, Mrs. O’Connor smiled at well-wishers on her historic day. Under her judicial robes she wore a pink, long-sleeved dress and a gold choker. Asked about the robe, Mrs. O’Connor replied : “I’ ll buy a new one eventually, when this one gets frayed. They do, you know.” The 52-year-old Arizona jurist carved her place in American history in the dramatic setting of the solemn, velvet-draped, marble-columned courtroom where sit the nine justices who ma~e up the Supreme Court of the United States. Viewing the historic moment were more than 300 dignitaries – led by Ronald Reagan, the man who broke the male-only tradition with his nomination of Mrs. O’Connor to the highest tribunal. She became the 102nd member of the 191-year-old court, replacing Potter Stewart, 67, who resigned from the bench in July and gave Reagan the opportwiity to fuliill his campaign promise to appoint a woman. In addition to Reagan and his wife Nancy, others invited included Vice President George Bush; Stewart
Arizona is justly proud of Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. She made it clear during her nomination hearing that the nation can count on her to judge cases fairly, on their merits, according to law and not by preconceived notions. It is especially heartening to note that not all the zealous opposition by radical-right, Moral Majority and anti-abortion factions that wanted her defeated carried the slightest might. Her praises rang through the Senate chamber, and the senators unanimously confirmed her nomination. O’Connor’s opponents objected to her support of women’s issues such as the Equal Rights Amendment, removal of sexual distinctions from all state laws, and public money for family planning services. Yet at the same time, she has expressed doubts about busing for racial desegregation and the exclusionary rule, which bars the use at trial of illegally obtained evidence, and she finds abortion personally unacceptable. Whatever her personal views, as a judge she calls them as she sees them. O’Connor stressed at the hearings the importance of not allowing personal inclinations to enter decisions. Sandra O’Connor follows in a line of distinguished “firsts” for Arizona women. Arizona produced the first woman to serve as a chief justice on a state supreme court, Loma Lockwood. Mary Anne Richey of Tucson was the first woman appointed as a U.S. attorney. She now is a federal District Court judge. -O’Connor’s appointment as Supreme Court justice
Proponents and opponents of the nomination of Sandra Day O’Connor to the U.S. Supreme Court may debate her qualifications, but no one can dispute the symbolic significance of her appointment. Just like the “black seat'” and the “Jewish seat,” today, when O’Connor is sworn in to join the eight male justices. there will be a “woman’s seat” on the highest court in the land. As the first of her sex to hold such a position, she will be under tremendous pressure probably for as long as she sits on the court. While it would be nice to think otherwise, no one really expects there to be more than one woman on the Supreme Court for a long time. Although the concept of a woman as judge in this country has taken 200 years to become a reality at the top of the judiciary system, women have been dispensing justice in the nations courts for more than 100 years. Esther Morris, remembered by posterity as a “plain-spoken shopkeeper’s wife.” was the nation’s first female magistrate. She was appointed a justice of the peace in 1870 in Wyoming, where the year before history was also made when the territorial legislature voted in the nation’s first women’s suffrage. Things went somewhat more slowly in San Francisco. where a woman was not appointed ‘to sit on the bench until 1930. Mary Wetmore. secretary to a State Supreme Court justice. was sworn into office as a Municipal Court judge in July of that year. However, she died of appendicitis little more than a month later. Her replacement, Theresa Meikle
THE scrutiny that Sandra Day O’Connor underwent during confirmation hearings to become the first woman justice of the U.S. Supreme Court will not end with her swearing in t.oday. For at least the next several years – or at least .until her sex no longer seems unique for a Supreme Court justice – journalists and legal scholars will poke, pry and ponder as they evaluate the work and habits of Justice O’Connor. For their part, newsmen will try to penetrate the wall of secrecy around the court’s deliberations, seeking inside reports on how this lone woman fares with eight men during deliberations. Legal scholars will dissect each new ruling seeking some clue as to whether the feminist touch finally has found its way into the stodgy wording and the male reasoning of court decisions. Justice O’Connor’s private life will be just as thoroughly watched, as she inevitably begins to mingle in Washington’s cosmopolitan set of politicians, diplomats and favorseekers. Her wardrobe also will be the object of scrutiny, especially by fashion gossips who look for trends among Washington’s pacesetters and powerful. This is the price anyone in public life pays. But Justice O’Connor’s price will even be higher because of the history she has created, and the fact that she’s a woman. She will bear the burden well, even with wit and humor. And in time, those who will have given her inordinate scrutiny will tire of their tasks. Justice O’Connor has an established judicial reputation in Arizona for immersing
WASHINGTON (UPI) – President Reagan hosted a Rose Garden reception today for federal judges and the newest member of the Supreme Court, pledging to do all he can to “enhance the prestige and quality of the federal bench.” Chief Justice Warren Burger and Sandra Day O’Connor, who will be sworn in Friday as the high court’s first woman justice, were on hand for the reception. – Judge O’Connor, formerly on the • Arizona Court of Appeals bench, • was beaming as she and Reagan : strode from the Oval Office into : tbe brilliant sunlight that bathed the garden nearby. : Speaking to about 150 judges : from federal district and appellate : benches, Reagan said he was thankful for their daily reassurance “that our ideals of liberty and justice are alive and well in the United States.” The presiden t
PHOENIX (AP) – Applications will be accepted until Oct. 30 for persons wishing to fill the Arizona Court of Appeals vacancy created by the resignation of Sandra O’Connor.
Appeals Court Chief Judge Lawrence Wren said Wednesday the state’s judicial selection committee for appeals courts will forward between three and 10 names to Gov. Bruce Babbitt.
Mrs. O’Connor resigned Tuesday, the day after the Senate voted 99-0 to confirm her appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“My hairdo, right or wrong.”
An admirable credo, we admit. We just wish we could say the same for Judge Sandra O’Connor’s coiffure. We recently overheard someone say, “She looks so wholesome, it’s hard to believe she’s in favor of abortion.” We couldn’t agree more. Since there’s never been a woman Supreme Court Justice, we don’t exactly know what one should look like. But somehow, we don’t think she should look like she’s about to tell a classful of 1955 third graders to get under their desks for an atomic bomb drill.
No one doubts that the Judge is a busy woman. Reviewing-briefs, absorbing
testimony and issuing death row reprieves take a lot out of a person. But you’d think Her Honor could find time to drop in at the Pennsylvania Avenue Cut ‘N Curl for an estimate. Then again, maybe she can’t.
So in the interest of good grooming in high places, we took it upon ourselves to survey hometown hairdressers in hopes of lending the judge some tonsorial first aid.
Unfortunately, we didn’t get far. Evidently there exists among beauticians a code every bit as strict as the Hypocritic [sic] Oath and to pass judgment on someone’s do for a third party is akin to cosmetic treason. The receptionist at the Add-A-Curl Beauty Salon merely passed the buck, telling us to call back later and talk to someone – anyone – else. At the Purple Wig, the spokeswoman pled the fifth. “Oh, we’ve never done her. We’d have nothing to say about this issue.”
Off the record, it was a different story. A
WASHING TON (AP) – The Senate, ending an all-male tradition nearly two centuries old, unanimously confirmed Sandra Day O’Connor as an associate justice of the Supreme Court yesterday. O’Connor, a 51-year-old judge of the Arizona Court of Appeals, will be sworn in Friday in time to join the court for the opening of its 1981-82 term on Oct. 5. The vote was 99-0, with only Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., who was attending an economic conference in his home state, missing from the tally. He had supported O’Connor in earlier committee action. After the vote, O’Connor appeared on the steps of the Capitol with Senate leaders and Vice President George Bush. Grinning jubilantly, she said said she was overjoyed by the depth of Senate support for her nomination. “My hope is that after I’ve been across the street and worked for a while that they’ll all feel glad for the wonderful vote they gave me today,” she said. Once installed on the the court, she said, “I’m going to get very busy, very fast.” “Today is truly a historic occasion,” said Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, leading off a series of 22 speeches in warm praise of President Reagan’s first high-court nominee. Hailing a “happy and historic day,” Reagan said in a statement that the confirmation of his nominee “symbolizes the richness of opportunity that still abides in America – opportunity that permits persons of any sex, age or race, from every section and walk of life, to aspire and achieve in
WASHINGTON (UPI) – In a vote hailed as a turning point in U.S. political history, the Senate voted unanimously Monday to confirm Sandra Day O’Connor as the nation’s first woman justice of the Supreme Court. The vote was 99-0. Sen . Max Baucus, D-Mont., was the only absentee. Cautioned against any demonstration, spectators thronging the Senate gallery kept silent during the 20-minute roll call and the announcement of the outcome . Outside the Capitol, a huge crowd greeted Judge O’Connor with cheers as she arrived with Attorney General William French Smith and posed for pictures with Vice President George Bush and Senate leaders. “I’m absolutely overjoyed with the expression of support from the Senate, and my hope is that 10 years from now, after I’ve been across the street at work for a while, they will feel glad they gave me the wonderful vote they did today,” Judge O’Connor said. “I’ll certainly work hard to make that hl!.ppen.” President Re&gan promptly issued a statement saying, “This is truly a happy and histor~c day fof America,” and expressmg gratitude for the unanimous vote. He called Judge O’Connor “a very warm and brilliant woman” and said he is sure “the court and the nation will benefit both from her lifetime of work, service ~nd experience in the legal profession, …
WASHINGTON (AP) -Sandra Day O’Connor, confirmed by a unanimous Senate as the first woman justice on the Supreme Court, promises to be “very busy, very fast” after she is sworn in later this week. There is no clear indication, however, how she will vote on social and constitutional issues that come before the court. The 51-year-old Arizona appeals judge won a 99-0 endorsement in the Senate on Monday as the 102nd justice in the 191-year history of the nation’s highest court. She will be youngest of the nine members. Mrs. O’Connor will be sworn in for her lifetime position in ceremonies Friday afternoon at the Supreme Court building. But because the ceremony will be conducted in the courtroom itself, the recording for posterity will be limited. “As is the court practice, there will be no TV, no photographs and no tape recordings,” court spokesman Barrett McGurn today said in a printed statement released today. Reporters and artists will be admitted to the ceremony, as they are for all court sessions. There will be no public admission, however, except by invitation. McGurn said official court photographers would be on hand but added, “I know of no plan to have any photograph taken in the courtroom.” Cruet Justice Warren E. Burger will administer Mrs. O’Connor’s oath of office, and White House officials said President Reagan may attend the Friday ceremony. “My hope is that 10 years from now, after I’ve been across the street and worked for a while, that they’ll all feel glad for the
WASHINGTON – (AP) – Sandra Day O’Connor, confirmed by a unanimous Senate as the fn-st woman justice on the United States Supreme Court, promises to be “very busy, very fast” after she is sworn in later this week. There is no clear indication, however, how she will vote on social and constitutional issues that come before the court. The 51-year-old Arizona appealscourt judge won a 99-0 endorsement in the Senate yesterday as the 102nd justice in the 191-year history of the nation’s highest court. She will be youngest of the nine members. Judge O’Connor will be sworn in for her lifetime position in ceremonies Friday afternoon. “My hope is that 10 years from now after I’ve been across the street and worked for a while, that they’ll all feel glad for the wonderful vote they gave me today,” a smiling Judge O’Connor said after the vote. Once installed on the court, which opens Its 1981-82 term October 5, “I’m going to get very busy, very fast,” Judge O’Connor said. The vote, following four hours of laudatory speeches by conservatives and liberals alike, was a victory for Mr. Reagan as well as Mrs. O’Connor. Opposition to Judge O’Connor’s views on abortion melted when Senator Jesse Helms, North Carolina Republican, leader of the most conservative wing of the Senate, said he would support the nomination “because I have faith in the President.” Helms said he believed Mr. Reagan’s views against legalized abortion were too strong to permit him to nominate someone who supports the 1973 _Supreme
All-male tradition on top court ends
WASHINGTON – The Senate , ending an all-male tradition nearly two centuries old. unanimously confirmed Sandra Day O’Connor as an associate justice of the Supreme Court on Monday. Mrs . O’Connor, a 51-year-old Arizona state appeals judge , will be sworn in Friday in time to join the court for the opening of its 1981-82 term on October 5. The vote was 99-0. with only Sen. Max Baucus. D-Mont .. who was attending an economic conference in his home state, missing from the tally. He had supported Mrs. O’Connor in earlier committee action. “Today is truly a historic occa- sion,” said Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, leading off a series of 22 speeches in warm praise of President Reagan’s first high court nominee. Hailing a “happy and historic day,” President Reagan said in a statement the confirmation of his nominee “symbolizes the richness of opportunity that still abides in America – opportunity that permits persons of any sex, — age or race, from every section and walk of life. to aspire and achieve in a manner never before even dreamed about in human history.” As the vote neared. a small knot of conservatives who had questioned Mrs. O’Connor’s views on abortions fell into line behind her nomination. Jesse Helms. R-N.C .. leader of the most conservative bloc of Senate Republicans. voted for Mrs . O’Connor. saying he talked to the president and was assured that Mrs. O’Connor shares Reagan’s opposition to
BARRY GOLDWATER is bound to lose his fight with the self-styled Moral Majority and other religious groups that have injected themselves into politics. This will not deter him. Goldwater has fought losing fights before. The fact remains that religious groups have always taken part in politics in this country. They have as much a right to under the Constitution as anyone else. Sometimes, they have served the nation well. The Right-to-Life movement never wearies of comparing itself with the abolitionist movement. In the light of history, the abolition movement was a noble one. The same can hardly be said of the campaign led by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. Prohibition gave birth to organized crime. Religious groups that engage in politics are frequently offensive because they presume to have a pipeline to God. The liberal National Council of Churches is just as sure as the conservative Moral Majority that it speaks for God. AB. leader of the Moral Majority, the Rev. Jerry Falwell pretends to know even how God stands on the nomination of Sandra O’Connor to the.Supreme Court. Goldwater, who supports the nomination, is rightly outraged by this. “Mr. Conservative” also is rightly outraged by Falwell’s gall in lecturing him on how a conservative should vote in the Senate. Many find the very name, the Moral Majority, offensive, since it clearly implies that anyone who disagrees with Falwell is a moral leper. Actually, polls show that most Americans don’t go all the way with
WASHINGTON (AP) Sandra Day O’Connor, confirmed bv a unanimous Senate as the first woman justice on the Supreme Court, promises to be “very busy, very fast” after she is sworn in later this week. There is no clear indication, however, how she will vote on social and constitutional issues that come before the court . The 51-year-old Arizona appeals judge won a 99-0 endorsement in the Senate on Monday as the 102nd justice in the 191-year history of the na – tion’s highest court. She will be youngest of the nine members. Mrs. O’Connor will be sworn in for her lifetime position in ceremonies Friday afternoon at the Supreme Court building. But because the ceremony will be conducted in the courtroom itself, the recording for posterity will be limited. “As is the court practice, there will be no TV, no photographs and no tape recordings, ” court spokesman Barrett McGurn today said in a printed statement released today . Reporters and artists will be admitted to the ceremony , as they are for all court sessions. There will be no public admission , however , except by invitation. Two “picture opportunities ” are scheduled shortly after the 15-minute ceremony, McGurn said official court photographers would be on hand but added, “I know of no plan to have any photograph taken in the courtroom < during the ceremony)." Chief Justice Warren E. Burger will administer Mrs. O'Connor's oath of office, and White House officials said Pres - ident Reagan may attend the Friday ceremony. "My hope is
WASHINGTON – Women across America should take a moment to celebrate the Senate’s confirmation of Sandra Day O’Connor to the Supreme Court. Appointments of women to the federal judiciary aren’t likely to be a recurring feature of the Reagan administration. Though the president has made history by appointing the 51-year-old Arizonan as the first woman to the High Court, he’s now under far greater pressure to nominate those of his own persuasion and sex. • Sandra O’Connor: Her appointment to the Supreme Court doesn’t let the ‘ Reagan administration off the hook. Among other radical changes in its first nine months, the Reagan administration has reshuffled the way federal judges are selected. Reagan has muted the importance given to women and minority appointments during the Carter years. It’s almost as if the Reagan staff took literally the new movie “First Monday in October.” Their actions echo the sentiments of actor Walter Matthau who, as a feisty liberal justice, displays his distaste that a woman is on the bench by telling a law clerk, “It’s eight of us against all of her.” So far, of the 12 new federal district and circuit judges nominated by Reagan, all are male; none are black or Hispanic. There are, of course, still about 60 judgeships to fill nationwide. A-411iurs., Sept. 24, 1981 CO 77,e Pboeaii Cazette But we’re not staying up nights waiting for women to get the nod. Here’s why: Traditionally, senators in the majority party have suggested candidates from their states
WASHINGTON ( AP)-Sandra Day O’Connor, confirmed by a unanimous Senate as the first woman justice on the Supreme Court, promises to be “very busy, very fast” after she is sworn in Friday. There is no clear indication, however, how she will vote on social and constitutional issues that come before the court. The 51-year-old Arizona appeals judge won a 99-0 endorsement in the Senate on Monday as the 102nd justice in the 191-year history of the nation’s highest court. She will be youngest of the nine members. MRS. O’CONNOR WILL be sworn in for her lifetime position in ceremonies Friday afternoon in the Supreme Court but ding. But because the ceremony Related story, A3 will be conducted in the courtroom itself, the recording for posterity will be limited. . “As is the court practice, there will be no TV, no photographs and no tape recordings,” court spokesman Barrett McGurn said in a printed statement released today. Reporters and artists will be admitted to the ceremony, as they are for all court sessions. There will be no public admission, however, except by invitation. CHIEF JUSTICE Warren Burger will administer Mrs. O’Connor’s oath of office. “My hope is that 10 years from now, after I’ve been across the . street and worked for a while, that they’ll all feel glad for the wonderful vote they gave me today ” a smiling Mrs . O’Connor said at a~ appearance on the Capitol steps with Vice President George Bush and Senate leaders. . Once installed on the court, which opens its 1981-82
