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.
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
Arizona’s Sandra Day O’Connor, with the Senate’s unanimous backing in her pocket, will tak~ ~e oath as America’s first woman Justice on the Supreme Court Friday. But the appellate judg~’s {?reparations for her hist.ory-makmg 111$tallation were interrupted today by a mission of personal sadness as _she returned to Phoenix from Washington’s celebratory mood to attend memorial services late today for her . mother-in-law. MEANWHILE, the White House announced President Reagan will attend the Friday investiture of Judge O’Connor. The president also will host a White House reception Thursday for 160 members of the federal judiciary and hold a private luncheon for Judge O’Connor and the justices of the Supreme Court. Here at home, the mood among friends and longtime associates was one of quiet pride in Judge O’Con- . nor’s confirmation. Surprise was not in evidence; most said they had expected the easy approval. JUDGE O’CONNOR won confirmation Monday on a 99-0 Senate vote. Only Montana Democrat Max Baucus, who supported her when her nomination was endorsed 17-0 by the Judiciary Committee, was absent from the floor. He was attending a meeting in his home state. Even Alabama Republican Jeremiah Denton, who had quizzed the judge on her abortion ~tan~e and abstained from the committee s vote, went along on the fmal confirmation . “Some colleagues said I’d be laughed out of the Senate if I voted against her,” he said. “I _kept w~ndering what would the president thmk of me what would my colleagues
The Senate confirmed Sandra D. O’Connor as the first woman U.S. Supreme Court justice yesterday by a vote of 99 to 0. O’Connor will be sworn in Friday as the 102nd justice of the court. At 51, she will be the youngest member of a court now dominated by men in their late 60s and early 70s, a court assembled by six different presidents: Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford and now, Ronald Reagan. I. The historic Senate action came early yesterday evening without real debate. Only one senator, Max Baucus (D-Mont.), did not THE WASHINGTON POST vote. Baucus has been a strong supporter of the nomination but was in Montana when the roll call was taken. The only issue of the day was which senator could sing the highest, longest and moet effusive praises for O’Connor and President Reagan. And thus what began in July as one of the president’s moet controversial decisions ended as one of his least difficult encounters with Congress. Some suspense had remained about whether a few senators might cast negative votes or abstain because of opposition to O’Connor from antiabortion forces. But even that doubt was swept away by O’Connor’s performance in confirmation hearings, lobbying by Reagan and an increasingly evident desire among a few undecided to avoid spoiling the party. “Some colleagues said I’d be laughed out of the Senate if I voted against her,” Sen. Jeremiah Denton (R-Ala.) said in an interview before casting his vote for confirmation. Denton, a staunch antiabortion senator who
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 Monday. Mrs. O’Connor, a 51-year-old Arizona state appeals judge and former El Paso resident. will be sworn in Friday in time to join the court for the opening of its 1981-82 term 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. Baucus had supported Mrs. O’Connor in earlier committee action.
After the vote, Mrs. O’Connor appeared on the steps of the Capitol with Senate leaders and Vice President George Bush.
Grinning jubilantly, she 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 awhile 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.”
Mrs. O’Connor will become the 102nd person to don the black robes of a Supreme Court member since the court was created as one of three equal branches of the federal government 191 years ago.
A graduate of Stanford University Law School, she worked as a state prosecutor in Arizona before serving terms in both houses of the state Legislature.
She was a former majority leader of the Arizona Senate, served as a state trial court judge and later was named by Gov. Bruce Babbitt to
Senate votes 99-0 for woman on high court WASHINGTON (AP) -The Senate, ending an all-male tradition nearly two centuries old, unanimously confirmed Sandra Day O’Connor as a justice of the Supreme Court Monday. Judge 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 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. He had supported Judge O’Connor in earlier committee action. AFTER THE VOTE, Judge O’Connor appeared on the steps of the Capitol with Senate leaders and Vice President George Bush. Grinning jubilantly, she said, “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.” “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 pre-vote 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 Judge
WASHINGTON (AP) -Sandra Day O’Connor awaited easy confirmation by the Senate today as the first woman on the Supreme Court. The chairman of the Judiciary Committee predicted the vote would be unanimous. As the Senate opened debate on President Reagan’s first high court nomination , there was praise for Mrs. O’Connor from both liberals and conservatives. Even. Sen. Jesse Helms , R-N.C., an archconserva tive foe of legalized abortions , said he would vote for Mrs. O’Connor. He said he had been personally assured by the president that . Mrs. O’Connor believes the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion was wrong . “I will vote for the confirma – tion of Mrs. O’Connor because I have faith in the president of the United States ,” Helms said . And liberal Democrat Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., said that , “by • this vote the Senate rejects the would-be tyranny of the New Right and reaffirms the vital principal of the independenc~ of the judiciary .” He has praised Reagan for naming a woman. The Judiciary Committee chairman, Sen. Strom Thurmond , R-S.C., said that despite some lingering opposition over her views on abortion, he expecte d not a single negative vote would be cast. Thurmond said on the Senate floor that Mrs. O’Connor, as a former state legislator and Arizona appeals court judge , believes that “laws are changed by the Congress and not by the federal courts .” Sen. Barry Goldwater , R-Ariz., said those who sought to block Mrs. O’Connor’s nomination be- •Cause of her
The perfonnance of Supreme Court nominee Sandra O’Connor during Congressional hearings on her nomination clearlr w~ convincing to Tribune readers who responded to last week s Opinion Poll. O’Connor an Arizona appellate court justice and former state legislator, ~cored a 76 percent favorable rating to.~ ques~on which asked if she had effectively answered her cntics durmg the hearings. Only 12 percent of those responding to the poll sa!d. she had not been effective while another 12 percent had no opmion. Majorities also voiced a perference for staying out of problems in other countries judged by their answers to two other questions. Fifty three percent of those responding wer~ opposed to off~ring aid to Poland if that country should be invaded by Soviet troops while 76 percent said the United States shouldn’t ~upport rebels fighting the government in Iran. “We should mmd our own business,” one respondent wrote. However, Poland had some supporters with 47 percent saying the U.S. should provide help if that country is invade~. Readers also cast a skeptical eye on spending for high school sports and Kirlian photography. . . Fifty-three percent said too much mone~ s~nt ?n. high school sports compared to 41 percen_t ~ho dido t think it is excessive and 6 percent who had no opmion. . Only 24 percent said Kirlian photography, bi~ed as war to determine a person’s bio-energy field or aura, is a valid scientific field of study compared to 47 percent who said no and 29 percent who had no
WASHINGTON – Sandra Day O’Connor awaited confirmation by the Senate today as the first woman on the Supreme Court. The chairman of the Judiciary Committee predicted the vote would be unanimous. As the Senate opened debate on President Reagan’s first high court nomination, there was praise for …
tion on abortion, Goldwater said, it . probably would have tainted her ability to vote on the issue as a coan associate justice. — ; “They would have denied themselves a future anti-abortion vote,” Goldwater said. Liberals and conservatives alike have praise …
Liberal Sen. Howard Metzen – baum, D-Ohio, for example, said he was troubled by Mrs. O’Connor’s conservative views on whether poor defendants in criminal cases should be guaranteed a lawyer . Nonetheless, Metzenbaum said a rC1minee never should be rejected because of personal views.
WASHINGTON (UPl)-The Senate is expected to vote overwhelmingly today – if not unanimously – to confirm President Reagan’s choice of Sandra Day O’Connor as the nation’s first woman Supreme Court justice. Plans already are being made for O’Connor to take her oath at the court Friday at the end of the fall Judicial Conference meeting, a prestigious session of senior federal judges with Chief Justice Warren Burger. O’Connor, 51, stayed in Washington over the weekend to be on hand if any problems arose. None were foreseen. In Senate Judiciary Committee hearings week before last, O’Connor emerged as an intelligent, hard-working nominee with conservative views and enough gumption to , refuse to say how she would vote on future abortion cases. Chairman Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., then began trumpeting his enthusiasm over the Arizona appeals court judge and former Arizona state senate Republican leader, predicting she would be confirmed with little opposition on the Senate floor. If any senator privately planned to vote no, he kept it a secret. Sen. Jeremiah Denton, R-Ala., who voted “present” in the committee while 17 other members voted “aye,” was not saying what his vote will be. Denton is disturbed by O’Connor’s refusal to state her judicial position on abortion, which she says she opposes personally. He sent Reagan a note asking for more information to help him decide how to vote on the Senate floor. In response, Reagan called Denton Thursday, according to Steve Allen, Denton’s press
WASHINGTON – Arizona Judge Sandra Day O’Connor appeared headed toward unanimous Senate confirmation today as the nation’s first woman Supreme Court justice. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., told reporters an early challenger of the nomination , conservative Jeremiah Denton, R-Ala., had pledged an “aye” vote on confirmation. Denton voted “present” when Thurmond’s commit – tee recommended her confirmation. Thurmond mentioned other New Right abortion foes who had been persuaded to support President Reagan’s nominee and added : “I’m hoping to get a unanimous vote. I think that will he the case.” THE FOUR-HOUR Senate debate period ended without a single indication of opposition to Judge O’Connor ‘s nomination. The period was used largely for “quorum calls” ordered when there was no senator on the floor to make a speech. Often an orator had only the presiding officer, staff members and sparsely-filled galleries for. his audience. The confirmation vote was scheduled for this evening. The evaporation of conservative opposition was cheered by Democratic orators, who matched Republicans in calling for a unanimous vote – while denouncing the “single issue” (abortion) politics that had troubled some Republicans. Sen . Howard Metzenbaum, D-Ohio , said he differs with Judge O’Connor on many issues but thinks she is qualified and should not he defeated on the basis of one issue. “I hope that today there won’t be a single vote cast against her confirma – tion,” Metzenbaum
LYNCHBURG, Va. – The Moral Majority said ,Thursday it still is concerned about Judge Sandra O’Connor’s views on abortion but neither will ‘support nor oppose her confirmation as the nation’s first woman Supreme Court justice. The Senate is expected to confirm her Monday. When President Reagan announced her nomination July 7, the Moral Majority called it a mistake and announced a campaign to oppose her, saying she had voted to legalize abortion and had supported the Equal Rights Amendment, which the Moral Majority opposes. Television evangelist Jerry Falwell, who founded the Lynchburg-based conservative political group, changed that position. On July 17, Falwell said he would decline an invitation to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee and would remain neutral until after its hearings, which ended Tuesday. The Moral Majority, in a statement Thursday from its headquarters here, said it remains concerned about Judge O’Connor’s views on “the law as it related to unborn life.” “At the same time, Moral Majority remains convinced of President Reagan’s strong personal integrity and commitment to ending abortion on demand in this country,” the statement added .
WASHINGTON (AP) – Sandra Day O’Connor, her confirmation as the first woman on the Supreme Court expected in a Senate vote Monday, likely will be sworn in next Friday. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 17-0 earlier this week in favor of confirmation. A White House spokesman said O’Connor had expressed a preference for the Friday swearing-in, to be held at the Supreme Court. It is not known whether President Reagan plans to attend the ceremony. O’Connor , a 51-year-old Arizona appeals court judge, would become the 102nd member in the Supreme Court’s 191-year history. She would replace retired Justice Potter Stewart. Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., chairman of the Judiciary Committee, had hoped to schedule the Senate vote today, but on Wednesday the vote was set for Monruiy
Confirmation virtually assured
…
provide any legal opinion regarding the 1973 decision.
East said hearing O’Connor express personal support for the death penalty and opposition to busing for racial desegregation convinced him that. “we have found a conservative woman of conservative instincts.” He said he also voted for O’Connor “because she is a nominee of Ronald Reagan …. I suspect he knows things that I don’t know.” Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C. the committee chairman, said O’Connor had demonstrated during her testimony all of the “good qualities” needed to become a good Supreme Court justice . Though the Judiciary Committee represents a broad spectrum of political opinion, O’Connor drew general praise from liberals and conservatives alike. But Denton said abortion is such an important issue that there was nothing wrong with making it the lone criteria in deciding whether to confirm O’Connor.
During last week’s hearings, the nominee said that she did not want to prejudice any rulings she might make on the court, and so gave the committee little insight as to how she might vote on specific issues likely to reach the nine justices.
As a result, Denton said, “I know very little about Judge O’Connor’s opinions on the great legal issues of the day.” If he had become convinced O’Connor supported the court’s 1973 abortion ruling, Denton said he would have voted against her confirmation. Without some firm idea of how she might vote if the issue reaches the court again, he
WASHINGTON – The Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday recommended by 17 to 0 that the Senate confirm Sandra Day O’Connor to be the Supreme Court’s first woman justice, with Sen. Jeremiah Denton CR-Ala.) abstaining on grounds he was uncertain about her position on abortion. Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), the committee chairman, said after the panel’s vote that O’Connor could win the unanimous backing of the Senate when it votes on the nomination, possibly as early as Friday. Denton Undecided An aide to Denton said the senator, who ranked the abortion issue as overshadowing “virtually all other considerations,” has not made up his mind on how he will vote in the full Senate. “He’s really wrestling with this one ,” the aide said. Two other committee Republicans who expressed concern over how O’Connor would vote on the abortion question as a Supreme Court justice, Sens. John P. East of North Carolina and Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, said they based their committee votes for her partly on the belief that President Reagan knows more about her abortion views than the committee. “I suspect he (Reagan) knows some things I don’t,” East said. “I feel down in my heart of hearts that had she been on the court she would have joined Justices (William H.) Rehnquist and (Byron R.) White” in dissenting from the 1973 Supreme Court decision that held that women have a qualified constitutional right to abortion. Last week, O’Connor told the committee she generally is opposed to abortion and admitted
WASlllNGTON (AP) – Sen. Barry Goldwater, R-Ariz., pledged Tuesday to “fight every step of the way” against efforts by such groups as the Moral Majority and Pro-Life to “dictate their moral convictions to all Americans.” Goldwater, the 1964 Republican candidate for president and a leading congressional conservative, said in a Senate speech that such “single issue religious groups . . . are not using their religious clout with wisdom.” . “Just who do they think they are?” he asked. “And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me?” Goldwater specifically mentioned the Moral Majority and Pro-Life, an anti-abortion group known also as March for Life. Nellie Gray, national chairman of March for Life, responded: “Shall I dictate my moral views? Yes, I shall. Just as the abolitionists stood up against slavery so the pro-life people shall stand up against the slaughter of the innocents. That’s who I am.” The Rev. Jerry Falwell, head of the fundamentalist and conservative Moral Majority, could not immediately be reached for comment on Goldwater’s speech. Goldwater said the Moral Majority, Pro-Life and similar groups are often referred to as elements of “the new conservatism.” But he said, “I can say with conviction that the religious issues of these groups have little or nothing to do with conservative or liberal politics. “The uncompromising position of these groups is a divisive element that could tear apart the very spirit of our representative
A~LL t~t remains before Sandra Day •. O’Connor dons the robe of an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court is the formality cif a confirmation vote in the full US.Senate. ‘ The Senate Judiciary Committee’s 17-0 vo1f Tuesday recommending her confirmation indicates that the full Senate might even cast a UQIUlllDOUS vote. Not even the sternest critics of Judge O’Connor’s legislative record on the Senate committee oould bring themselves to cast a “nay 1 ‘ vote when they rec.>mmended her confirmation. Judge O’Connor underwent some of the most gruelling interrogation that Washington has seen in yiears. ‘ In the end, however, her performance at the confipnation hearings was virtuoso. Her poise under fire, her skillful grasp of law and her unyielding professional refusal to be baited into second~essing court rulings clearly established Judge O’Connor as a person with exceptional personal and legal credentials and character . This time a few months ago Sandra Day O’Connor was an obscure state appeals judge, known outside Arizona only by a few members of the legal community. Today, she is an historic personality, known throughout the land and in many countries abroad. Her nomination to the court was a stro1re of genius by President Reagan. Of all the judges he could have selected for the high court, the president could not have found one with such diversity of experience – as an honored law student, as an assistant state attorney general, as a state legislator, and as a judge in two
WASHINGTON (AP ) – Sandra Day O’Connor , pas sing the first test with no one against her, is just one vote away from taking her plac e among eight men on the Supreme Court . That should be out of the way by the end of the week . The Senat e Judicia r y Committee recomm ended Tuesday that the full Senate confi rm the 51-ye ar -old Arizona appeals court judge to succeed retired Justice Pott er Stewart. The vote was 17-0, with one lead ing anti- abortion senator supportin g Mrs. O’Connor and another abstaining. Sen . Strom Thurmond , RS. C., th e com m itt ee chair man, sai d he would attempt to schedule the final vote in th e Se nate for Frid ay, allowing her to be sworn in Sept. 25 in time for th e court ‘s fall se ssion starting Oct. 5. The onl y committ ee member who didn’t vote for Mrs. O’Connor was Alaba ma Rep ubli ca n J ere m iah Denton. He voted ” present,” saying he did not know enough about her views on abortion or other “great lega l issues of the day” to either support or oppose her . “I appreciate his point of view,” Mrs . O’Connor said after wa rd . Aides to Denton said he has not yet decided if he will cast an identic al vote when the nominatien comes to the Senate floor. If Denton votes yes, Mrs . O’Connor ‘ s confirmation could be unanim ous . Tuesday’ s committee vote reflected Mrs. O’Connor’ s support from conservative s and liberals alike . .
The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the nomination of Sandra Day O’Connor to the U.S. Supreme Court by a vote of 17-0 Tuesday. Only Sen. Jeremiah Denton of Alabama kept it from being unanimous by abstaining.
It is an honor which O’Connor richly deserves , for she ha s an outstanding record of public service. It is a position for which she is eminently qualified on the basis of her knowledge of law , her objectivity and her brilliant mind. Friday the full Senate is scheduled to approve the nomination . Then the woman who grew up on a ranch in eastern Arizona will become the first female member of the court and its 102nd member.
The committee hearings were fascinating to follow. They demons tr ate d O’Connor’s grasp of legal details and concepts, as well as her ability to field difficult and provocative questions.
Opposition was essentially limited to a small but strident group of senators and witnesses who wanted O’Connor to take an unequivocal position against abortion.
Perhaps the best answer to the opponents came when Sen. Howard Metzenbaum, D-Ohio, declared that although he did not agree with the nominee on every issue, he recognized her total qualifications. He told witness Dr. Carolyn Gerster of Arizona, that judicial qualifications had to be considered on more than a single narrow issue.
For the most part, committee questions were not hostile, although individual members obviously did not agree with every answer. They did, however, agree with the Metzenbaum philosophy.
WASHINGTON-The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 17 to O Tuesday to support confirmation of Judge Sandra Day O’Connor, virtually guaranteeing smooth passage through the full Senate for President Reagan’s first Supreme Court appointment. The vote may represent a turning toint in the politics of abortion: Not one of four antiabortion New Right senators on the committee voted against Judge O’Connor despite the continued opposition to the nomination by the antiabortion movement. One of the four, Sen. Jeremiah Denton, R-Ala., abstained. The vote also represented a tribute to Reagan’s strength. Two of the antiabortion senators, John P. East, R-N.C., and Charles E. Grassley, RIowa, said they still had questions about Judge O’Connor’s stand on abortion but were swayed in part by loyalty to the President. Judge O’Connor’s name is expected to go Friday to the Senate floor, where an equally overwhelming vote for confirmation is expected. Her swearing-in is scheduled for Sept. 25. Tuesday’s committee’s action was never in doubt, but the degree of unanimity was. East, Grassley, and Denton, who have built their reputations on opposition to abortion, complained repeatedly during the confirmation hearings about Judge O’Connor’s unwillingness to be specific on how she viewed the Supreme Court’s 1973 legalization of abortion. They repeated those complaints Tuesday, but East and Grassley then voted for her and Denton responded “present” when his name was called. Grassley said he was convinced by
WASHINGTON, 16 sept. De juridische commissie van de Amerikaanse Senaat heeft gisteren vrijwel unaniem de benoeming van Sandra Day O’Connor tot eerste vrouwelijke rechter van het Amerikaanse Hooggerechtshof goedgekeurd. Er bestaat nu geen enkele twijfel meer dat de voltallige Senaat volgende week maandag haar benoeming zal beze- gelen. Vermoedelijk zullen alleen enkele senatoren tegen stemmen die tegen zwangerschapsonderbreking zijn. De 51-jarige Sandra Day O’Connor, een parmantige rechter uit de staat Arizona, is immers de afgelopen weken het mikpunt van anti-abortusgroeperingen geweest. Ook tijdens de hoorzittingen van vorige week, waarin zij door senatoren fors aan de tand werd gevoeld, speelde de abortuskwestie een belangrijke rol. Sandra Day O’Connor heeft namelijk in 1970 als lid van een Senaatscommissie in Arizona voor de legalisering van abortus gestemd. Dat was drie jaar geleden voordat het Hooggerechtshof in Washington zich voor legalisering uitsprak. Verder steunde zij in 1973 een wetsvoorstel waardoor het mogelijk werd meer informatie over geboortebeperking te verstrekken. Ten slotte sprak zij zich een jaar later tegen een resolutie uit waarin werd voorgesteld om een anti-abortus-amendement in de Amerikaanse grondwet op te nemen. Naar de mening van antiabortusgroeperingen kan zij met deze staat van dienst niet in aanmerking komen voor een benoeming in het hoogste rechtscollege. Ten slotte had Reagan vorig jaar beloofd dat hij geen rechter voor het Hooggerechtshof zou
WASHINGTON – Sandra O’Connor’s nomination as the first woman justice of the U.S. Supreme Court was approved without opposition Tuesday by tbe Senate Judiciary Committee. After the vote, Committee Chairman Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., predicted overwhelming confirmation of the judge and former Arizona state senator by the full Senate, perhaps as soon as Friday. One of the committee’s 18 members, Sen. Jeremiah Denton, R-Ala., abstained from voting because, he said, “I am far from satisfied with her answers” on abortion during three days of hearings last week. The other 17 members, nine Republicans and eight Democrats, voted for confirmation. “I appreciate his point of view,” Mrs. O’Connor said of Denton following the vote. Asked if she felt she had been given easier treatment by the committee because she is a woman, she replied, “Oh no.” But “they were very kind and very courteous,” she said. White House spokesman David Gergen said President Reagan was “delighted” with the vote and “is looking forward to a strong vote in the Senate” to confirm her nomination. The committee’s endorsement of Judge O’Connor, nominated by Reagan to replace retired Justice Potter Stewart who retired in July, had been predicted universally before and after last week’s hearings. Denton, who had questioned Judge O’Connor extensively, called his decision not to support her “one of the most difficult I have ever had to make.” Although she testified that she personally opposes abortion, Judge O’Connor repeatedly
WASHING TON – Arizona Judge Sandra Day O’Connor today won overwhelming approval from the Senate Judiciary Committee for her nomination t.o become the first woman justice on the Supreme Court. The vote was 17-0, with one member voting present. Sen. Jeremiah Denton, R-Ala., said he could not vote for the nomination without knowing Judge O’Connor’s specific views on abortion. Sixteen senat.ors initially voted to approve the nomination. Denton and Sen. John East withheld their votes while they made statements explaining their decisions. East, R-N.C., then voted yes. Denton voted “present.” DENTON, WHO HAD questioned Judge O’Connor at length about her views on abortion, has said he felt frustrated because he could not determine where she was “coming from philosophically” on abortion. “I know very little about Judge O’Connor’s opinions on the grave legal issues of the day,” Denton said in his statement today. Denton said Judge O’Connor is a “fine lady and distinguished jurist,” but added he was unable to support her nomination without knowing more about her beliefs concerning abortion. East said he was similarly troubled but cast his vote for the nomination because he believes Judge O’Connor to be “a conservative woman ofconservative instincts.” The full Senate is likely to consider the nomination with only nominal opposition on Friday. Prior to today’s committee action, Judge O’Connor’s swearing-in ceremony was scheduled for Sept. 25. The high court begins its fall session 10
WASHINGTON (AP) -Sandra Day O’Connor today won overwhehning approval from the Senate Judiciary Committee for her nomination to become the first woman on the Supreme Court. The vote was 17–0, with one member voting present. Sen. Jeremiah Denton, R-Ala., said he could not vote for the nomination without knowing O’Connor’s specific views on abortion. Sixteen senators voted to approve the nomination and then Denton and Sen. John East withheld their votes while they made statements explaining their decisions. East, R-N.C., then voted yes. Denton voted “present.” Denton, who had questioned O’Connor at length about her views on abortion, has said he felt frustrated because he could not determine where O’Connor was “coming from philosophically” on abortion. “I know very little about Judge O’Connor’s opinions on the grave legal issues of the day ,” Denton said in his statement today. Denton said O’Connor is a “fine lady and distinguished jurist” but said he was unable to support her nomination without knowing more about her beli~fs concerning abortion. East said he was similarly troubled but cast his vote for the nomination because he believes O’Connor to be “a conservative woman of conservative instincts .” Although she refused to disclose her specific views on the constitutionality of the 1973 Supreme ‘ Court decision legalizing abortion, East said “I feel down in my heart of hearts” that she would not have supported the ruling. East also said he was supporting the nomina – tion because
WASHINGTON (AP)-Sandra Day O’Connor today won overwhelming approval from the Senate Judiciary Committee for her nomination to become the first woman on the Supreme Court . The vote was 17-0, with one member voting present . Sen. Jeremiah Denton, R-Ala ., said he could not vote for the nomination without knowing Mrs. O’Connor’s specific views on abortion. Sixteen senators voted to approve the nomination and then Denton and Sen. John East withheld their votes while they made statements explaining their decisions. East , R-N.C., then voted yes. Denton voted “pres- ent.” Denton, who had questioned Mrs. O’Connor at length about her views on abortion, has said he felt frustrated because he could not determine where Mrs. O’Connor was “coming from philosophically” on abortion. “I know very little about Judge O’Connor’s opinions on the grave legal issues of the day,” Denton said in his statement today. Denton said Mrs . O’Connor is a ”fine lady and distinguished jurist” but said he was unable to support her nomination wit~out knowing more about her behefs concerning abortion. East said he was similarly troubled but cast his vote for the nomination because he believes Mrs. O’Connor to be “a conservative woman of conservative instincts.” Although she refused to disclose her specific views on the constitutionality of the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, East said, “I feel down in my heart of hearts” that she would not have supported the ruling.
East also said he was supporting
Sandra Day O’Connor today won overwhelming approval from the Senate Judiciary Committee for her nomination to become the first woman on the Supreme Court. The vote was 17-0, with one member voting present. Sixteen senators voted to approve the nomination before Sens. Jeremiah Denton and John East withheld their votes while they made statements. East, R-N.C., then voted yes. Denton voted “present.” Denton, an Alabama Republican who had questioned Mrs. O’Connor at length about her views on abortion, has said he felt frustrated because he could not determine where Mrs. O’Connor was “coming from philosophically” on abortion.
Prior to today’s committee vote and action scheduled for tomorrow by the full Senate, court officials scheduled Mrs. O’Connor’s swearing-in ceremony for Sept. 25. The high court begins its fall session 10 days later, the first Monday in October.
If confirmed, Mrs. O’Connor would replace Justice Potter Stewart, who retired in July.
Mrs. O’Connor, a 51-year-old Arizona appeals court judge, quickly dispelled most conservative opposition to her nomination during three days of confirmation hearings last week. She told the hearings that she abhors abortion, but she refused to say how she might vote on an abortion case should one come before the court. She also declined to comment on her views of the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion. Mrs. O’Connor said a child should consult with her parents before she has an abortion, but she told the senators that
WASHINGTON (UPI) – The Senate Judiciary Committee recommended unanimously today that Sandra Day O’Connor be the first woman Supreme Court justice. The vote was 17-0, with one vote of present. The full Senate is likely to consider the nomination with only nominal opposition Friday. Sen. Jeremiah Denton, R-Ala., saying he was dissatisfied that O’Connor had declined to give her “judicial view” on abortion during three days of confirmation hearings last week, cast the protest of “present.” But Denton, who questioned O’Connor at great length about abortion, said he won’t vote against her because her reluctance to answer was partly a defect in the confirmation process. “Thus, Mr. Chairman, my vote is to respond ‘present,'” Denton concluded after reading a four-page statement. Sens. John East, R-N.C., and Charles Grassley, R-lowa, voted for confirmation but joined in a statement read by East saying that they have reservations about O’Connor’s responses to abortion questions. While she found abortion “repugnant,” O’Connor refused under repeated questions to say whether her votes on the matter as a member of the highest court would reflect that personal view. East said O’Connor’s responses to other issues dear to conservatives – in favor of the death penalty and prp,ent1n’ dl’tmtion and against compulsory school busing indicated she would be a good justice. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R Utah, another conservative, issued a statement giving O’Connor unqualified support. “Judge O’Connor made it clear
Whatever else the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings may have accomplished they provided a rare insight into the workings of the American legal system. _ As Supreme Court justice nominee ,Sandra Day O’Connor cautiously threaded her way through the barrage of senatorial questions, televison viewers received an education in constitutional law. Questions of constitutionality, formerly . the province of legal scholars and lawyers, took on meaning for thousands of event television viewers and a whole lexicon of , legal terms was added to the nation’s vocabulary. The give and take between , the senators and Judge O’Connor provided a lesson in the landmark cases which influenced the course of American history. Politics and senatorial showmanship aside, the hearings were important for another reason. In contrast to so much of the world where justice has been replaced by slave labor camps or worse, the Senate proceedings were a living example of the American commitment to rule by law.
WASHINGTON (AP) – From her first moment in the congressional spotlight to her final day of testimony, Sandra Day O’Connor quickly disarmed her conservative opposition and set the stage for this week’s Senate vote on her Supreme Court nomination. As a result, Mrs. O’Connor, chosen by President Reagan to become the first woman on the high court, is likely to be confirmed with barely a ripple of opposition. Admittedly, a ‘Strong feeling in Congress that it is time to end 191 years of all-male domination of the high court is giving Mrs. O’ComJor’s nomination an added boost . Support for the nomination also has crossed party lines. “I have finally found an issue on which I can agree with Sen. (Barry) Goldwater,” said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., a member of the Judiciary Committee. Goldwater, R-Ariz., is an avid supporter of Mrs. O’Connor, an Arizona appeals court judge. A vote is scheduled Tuesday in the Senate Judiciary Committee with confirmation in the full Senate likely the next day . Congress also was expected this week to receive President Reagan ‘s latest rounds of budget cuts, including a proposal to cut $13 billion from the defense budget. The Senate planned to vote on a new attempt to break a liberal -led filibuster against a ban on school busing, while the House was scheduled to consider legislation that would • increase military pay scales. The strongest challenges to Mrs. O’Connor’s nomination came almost exclusively from the increasinglypowerful organizations –
LITILE ROCK, Ark. – The Rev. Jerry Falwell said Sunday he believes Moral Majority and other anti-abortion groups have made abortion a national issue that will become part of every election. In a few years, Falwell said that he hopes a candidate “couldn’t run for dogcatcher, much less president, without being pro-life.” Falwell was in Arkansas to preach in Vilonia at the home church of the state president of Moral Majority, the group Falwell founded. He conducted a news conference after his private twin-engine jet landed at the Little Rock airport. Falwell greeted about a dozen protesters who stood on the airport ramp carrying signs that read “So-called pro-life is anti-woman” and “ERA Yes; Reagan No.” “You don’t like Mr. Reagan?” Falwell asked the group. “He’s a nice guy.” The protesters retorted that Reagan opposed equal rights for women. But Falwell said Reagan, like himself, opposed only the Equal Rights Amendment “because he doesn’t believe in homosexual marriage or women in combat.” Falwell said abortion has become “th~ sensitive, priority issue in the nation” through the efforts of conservatives. He said evidence of this was the intense questioning of Supreme Court nominee Sandra Day O’Connor, who repeatedly was asked to explain her views on abortion during her Senate confirmation hearings last week. Although Falwell said Moral Majority had remained neutral on the O’Connor appointment, he indicated he was relieved by Judge O’Connor’s apparent conservatisn “Everybody
WASHINGTON – From her first moment in the congressional spotlight to her final day of testimony, Sandra Day O’Connor quickly disarmed her conservative opposition and set the stage for this week’s Senate vote on her Supreme Court nomination. As a result, Judge O’Connor, chosen by President Reagan to become the first woman on the high court, is likely to be confirmed with barely a ripple of opposition. Admittedly, a strong feeling in Congress that it is time to end 191 years of all-male domination of the high court is giving Judge O’Connor’s nomination an added boost. SUPPORT FOR the nomination also has crossed party lines. ”I have finally found an issue on which I can agree with Sen. (Barry) Goldwater,” said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., a member of the Judiciary Committee. Goldwater, R-Ariz., is an avid supporter of Judge O’Connor, an Arizona Appeals Court judge. A vote is scheduled Tuesday in the Senate Judiciary Committee with confirmation in the full Senate likely the next day. Congress also was expected this week to receive Reagan’s latest rounds of budget cuts, including a proposal to cut $13 billion from the defense budget. THE SENATE planned to vote on a new attempt to break a liberal-led filibuster against a ban on school busing, while the House was schedrled to consider legislation that would increase milit.ary pay scales. The strongest challenges to Judge O’Connor’s nomination . ca.me almost exclusively from the increasingly powerful organizations – including the
Donna Carlson West, s member of the ,trizons House of Representatives from Mess, was among those in Washington, D.C., last week to endorse the nomination of Sandra O’Connor of Arizona as a Justice of the lf. S. Supreme Court. The following guest column includes some of her impressions from that event. By DONNA CARLSON WEST ‘ I always have the sense of being “on the scene” of history being made when I visit this nation’s capitol, • but this time, it’s different. I am a part of history being made. Being here as a representative .of the people of Arizona and as a woman particiapting in the hearings on President Reagan’s nomination of the first woman to the U.S. Supreme Court . is almost overwhelming. I’ve testified at congressional hearings before, but suddenly I’m very cognizant of the fact that what I say in my testimony may well be read by future generations as they review the proceedings surrounding a significant event in our history. As I sit here with my youngest son, Douglas, who is sharing this special experience with me, I listen intently to the questions posed to the lady I’ve known for many years, Her quick and brilliant replies make me very proud. Proud of the President for keeping a commitment he made and proud at the competent woman he has chosen to become an associate justice on the Supreme Court. Everyone seems to be listening intently as if they are expecting her to hesitate or falter as the senators take turns in firing difficult questions at her. She doesn’t I
Full Senate action slated on floor on Wednesday WASHINGTON (AP) – From her first moment in the congressional spotlight to her final day of testimony, Sandra Day O’Connor quickly disarmed her conservative opposition and set the stage for this week’s Senate vote on her Supreme Court nomination. As a result, Mrs. O’Connor, chosen by President Reagan to become the first woman on the high court, is likely to be confirmed with barely a ripple of opposition. Admittedly, a strong feeling in Congress that it is time to end 191 years of all-male domination of the high court is giving Mrs. O’Connor’s nomination an added boost. Support for the nomination also has crossed party lines. “I have finally found an issue on which I can agree with Sen. (Barry) Goldwater,” said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., a member of the Judiciary Committee. Goldwater, RAriz., is an avid supporter of Mrs. O’Connor, an Arizona appeals court judge. A vote is scheduled Tuesday in the Senate Judiciary Committee with confirmation in the full Senate likely the next day. Congress also was expected this week to receive President Reagan’s latest rounds of budget cuts, including a proposal to cut $13 billion from the defense budget . The Senate planned to vote on a new attempt to break a liberal-led filibuster against a ban on school busing, while the House was scheduled to consider legislation that would increase military pay scales. The strongest challenges to Mrs. O’Connor’s nomination came almost exclusively from
THE only remaining question now seems to . be just how lopsided the Senate will vote -be in confirming Sandra O’Connor as the first ,. woman justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. She easily and obviously has won over the Senate Judiciary Committee, despite generally testy questions from three members, John East, R-N.C., Jeremiah Denton, R-Ala., and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa. This is not to say that members of the committee, or others in the Senate who must act on her confirmation, were totally pleased with all her answers. She obviously did not please some of them when she refused to condemn abortion – outright. She did not please opponents of the Equal Rights Amendment when she refused to withdraw her support for it. “- Nor did she please senators when she ‘ .. -consistently declined to reveal how she would , … tule on specific issues that might reach the high court’s docket in future years, correctly contending that public opinions now might compromise her role as a justice later. ‘) ,j • But the senators saw in Sandra O’Connor, :~!18 others_ watching her two days of testimony -: m Washington saw, a person of exceptional ~, integrity, high judicial temperament and ..:.• .. impeccable personal character. Her unfaltering recall of complicated and obscure court cases also revealed a scholarly preparation for her.new adventure on the high court. By contrast, the handful of opponents who showed up to oppose her confirmation – mainly anti-abortionists – showed not only ineptness,
WASHING TON – Declaring that “religion has no place in public policy,” Sen. Barry Goldwater, R-Ariz., today warned “political preachers” he will “fight them every step of the way.” The 1964 Republican presidential nominee, considered by many to be one of the fathers of modern conservativism, said in a speech prepared for delivery to the Senate that single issue religious groups, such as the Moral Majority, pose “a very serious threat to our liberty.” He said he was upset with the opposition to Arizona Judge Sandra O’Connor as Supreme Court justice based on her stand on abortion. “Of course, the saddest part of the whole dispute was that Judge O’Con- nor was attacked by these religious factions for a position she doesn’t hold. She opposes abortion and said so.”
Goldwater said no single issue should ever decide the fitness of a Supreme Court justice. In a reference to Moral Majority leader Jerry Falwell, Goldwater said, without mentioning his name: “I’m frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want t.o I be a moral person, I must believe in ‘A,’ ‘B,’ ‘C’ and ‘D.’ Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me? “And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. “I am warning them today: I will fight them every
Even from this distance, and thus .far removed from the pressures of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing room, it’s obvious that Sandra Day .. -O’Connor has left a deep, perhaps l even an historic, impression on the • nation. True, there is a certain hometown bias in judging Judge O’Connor’s performance before the udiciary Committee, which must decide whether to recommend her confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court. But even taking hometown pride into account, Sandra O’Connor’s conduct for two days in the witness chair in that packed room, and in the face of hostile questions, will long be remembered by millions who watched and heard her on television and radio. I once spent less than 10 minutes testifying before the House Interior Committee in Washington on behalf of a civic project in which I was engaged in Florida in the early 1970s. And I can tell you those 10 minutes were gruelling. There were distractions of comingand-going congressmen, whispered asides at the committee table, and questions from a few members of the panel that clearly were designed to state a position rather than elicit information. That was tame, however, compared to the hours and hours spent by Judge O’Connor fielding questions while cameras clicked, and a nation focused attention on this Arizonan seized in a moment of history. What struck me, as it did nearly everyone I’ve heard discussing the O’Connor testimony, were two things. First, the personal poise and dignity she retained throughout,
Just getting through it without mishap was impressive enough: the’ , first woman Supreme Court nomi-, nee, a relatively obscure mid-level, state judge, sitting alone at the witness table in a packed hearing room in Washington, answering questions on live television, everyone waiting for her to flinch. Of Supreme Court nominees, however, more than that is expected. To those conservatives who wondered News Analysis • whether Sandra D. O’Connor was a conservative with the heart of a liberal, last week’s confirmation hearings should be reassuring. To the extent that she would talk about her personal views on issues, she talked conservatively. She favors the death penalty. She is openminded on preventive detention. She, opposes “forced busing.” She thinks the federal courts have overpowered the states and she finds abortion “abhorrent,” though not sufficiently abhorrent to please the National’ Right to Life Committee. To those concerned about how well a short-tenured state judge understood federal law, she was dazzling, offering the Senate Judiciary Committee a two-day cram course in recent Supreme Court rulings. Reporters waiting for her to get one wrong, or at least provide the wrong citation, are still waiting. Her performance as a politician was masterful. She knew each senator’s pet project on the committee and could congratulate them on network television for their “fine work” in seeking solutions to the crime problem or the problem of caseload backlogs in the federal courts.
WASHINGTON (AP) – Arizona Appeals Court Judge Sandra O’Connor reportedly has selected one of her four law clerks for the U.S. Supreme Court. With O’Connor’s confirmation virtually certain within the next two. weeks as the nation’s first female Supreme Court justice, there were reports Saturday that she has selected Ruth V. McGregor of Phoenix, an Arizona State University law school graduate, to be her clerk. A spokesman for the Phoenix law firm of Fennemore, Craig, von Ammon & Udall confirmed that McGregor, 38, left the firm last week to take the clerk’s position with O’Connor. McGregor was ASU’s top law school graduate in the May 1974 class. The Senate is expected to confirm O’Connor’s nomination next week.
WASHINGTON -In the end, the hearings were so bland that even the presence of television cameras couldn’t keep the U.S. Senators in the room. And the lack of controversy surrounding Sandra Day O’Connor should continue right through Tues day, when the ~izona judge is expected to have her Supreme Court nomination confirmed by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Like all current justices except .William Rehnquist – her fellow Arizonan and old Stanford Law School classmate who received 26 ne~ative votes a decade ago – O’Connor can anticipate opposition by fewer than a dozen of the 100 senators. O’Connor had met and was interviewed by all in advance. She received enthusiastic support at the hearings from women’s groups, the customary bipartisan home-state delegation and most of the committee’s senators. In a minor historical footnote to President Reagan’s precedent-breaking decision to nominate a woman, she also became the first female endorsed for the Supreme Court by the establishment oriented American Bar Association, which in 1971 told President Richard Nixon that the two woman judges on his “short list” of six possible nominees were wiqualified. Embattled labor and civil rights groups for the first time in decades remained neutral, not bothering to testify. O’Connor’s strongest opponents, the anti-abortion activists, were split by President Reagan’s hardball politics. In a letter widely circulated in Right to Life circles last month, he bluntly charged (without offering proof) that
PHOENIX, Ariz., Sept. 12 (UPI)-Sandra O’Connor, confident she will be confirmed as the first woman justice of the “supreme Court, already has selected one of her four law clerks, it was reported today. The Phoenix Gazette said O’Connor has selected Ruth V. McGregor, who has been practicing law for the Phoenix law firm of, Fennemore, Craig, )ion Ammon & Udall, as her law clerk. McGregor, 38, was the top student in Arizona State University’s Law School class of May 1974 . A spokesman for the Phoenix law firm said McGregor left the firm last week to accept the clerk’s position.
WASHINGTON – In the end, the hearings were so bland that even ~e presence of television cameras couldn’t keep the U.S. Senators in the room. And the lack of controversy surrowiding Sandra Day O’Connor should continue through Tuesday, when the Arizona judge is expected to have her Supreme Court nomination confirmed by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Like all current justices except William Rehnquist – her fellow Arizonan and old Stanford Law School classmate who received 26 negative votes a decade ago – O’Connor can anticipate opposition by fewer than a dozen of the 100 senators. She received en_thusiastic ~upport at the hear ings from women’s groups, the customary bipartisan home-state delegation and most of the committee’s senators. O’Connor’s strongest opponents, the antiabortion activists, were split by President Reagan’s hardball politics. In a letter widely circulated in Right to Life circles last month, he charged that Carolyn F. Gerster, a co-founder of Arizona Right to Life, had “a record of vindictiveness.” That attack on a potentially dangerous witness dampened the enthusiasm of some other antiabortion leaders, who argued either that Reagan was too valuable an ally to irritate in a peripheral fight, or that failure to defeat O’Connor after an all-out effort would be politically debilitating. Gerster, who described herself as a social friend and political opponent of O’Connor, might have raised squarely the issue of O’Connor’s integrity. Instead, the physician’s
WASHINGTON (AP) – Sandra Day O’Connor remains largely a legal puzzle despite three days of Capitol Hill scrutiny. No one, including the Senate Judiciary Committee’s 18 members who are expected to vote Tuesday to approve her nomination to the Supreme Court, can predict with certainty how she will vote as a justice. But last week’s confirmation hearings provided some hints. Mrs. O’Connor, a 51-year-old Arizona appeals court judge who labored in relative obscunty until picked by President Reagan to replace retired Justice Potter Stewart and become the first woman ever on the nation’s highest court, shares the personal views of many conservatives. She finds abortion “repugnant,” thinks it “inappropriate” for women to participate in combat during war time, opposes busing for school integration, favors the death penalty for certain crimes, and believes the courts in some instances may be too soft on criminals. But Mrs. O’Connor repeatedly warned her Senate interrogators about reading too much into her personal views, saying they do not control her judicial votes. For example, when asked about busing to desegregate schools, Mrs. O’Connor voiced general opposition. Busing “can be a very disruptive part of any child’s education,” she said. But at another point, Mrs. O’Connor said federal judges sometimes are justified in ordering drastic steps to remedy “intentional constitutional violations” – the stated basis for such broad desegregation orders. Only on the subject of capital punishment
WASHINGTON – Sandra Day O’Connor, 51, wife, mother, lawyer, politician and judge, gave a polished performance last week as she took another step toward becoming the first woman associate justice of U.S. Supreme Court.
She appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee for three days of hearings on her confirmation, something considered a foregone conclusion since July 7, when President Reagan nominated her. Nothing during the hearing altered that conclusion. There were few surprises.
Everyone knew from the start that most of the committee’s 18 members intended to support her. Everyone knew the only meaningful opposition to her would be voiced by anti-abortion lobbyists. They view with dismay her voting record on that issue as a member of the Arizona
Senate.
And even they knew that their pleas to reject her appointment would for the most part, go unheeded. What did surprise many was Judge O’Connor’s impeccable performance before the panel and before the bank of television lights, the horde of reporters and a national audience of millions.
She gave the impression with every answer that her words had been contemplated, researched and rehearsed. She did not make those infamous gaffes that all public figures dread – gaffes that often result in embarrassing headlines.
None of the senators, not even the “pro-lifers,” unnerved her. They got the answers she wanted to give – nothing more. At no time did she stutter, mumble or falter, or get angry or snappish. And she appeared to be tireless.
On Wednesday, the first day of the hearing, at 4:20 p.m. Sen. Dennis DeConcini, D-Ariz., suggested a recess to give Judge O’Connor a break. She told Committee Chairman Strom Thurmond, the 78-year-old South Carolina Republican, that if he wanted a recess, that would be fine with her, but she could keep going.
WASHINGTON (AP) – Supreme Court nominee Sandra Day O’Co,inor is emerging from three days of Senate confirmation hearings the apparent victor in a showdown with anti-abortionists opposed to her. On the final day of the hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Mrs. O’Connor received bipartisan pledges to resist anti-aborti on pressures in confirmation votes expected next week. “I find something un-American about saying anyone could be judged on one issue alone,” Sen. Howard Metzenbaum, DOhio, said Friday. “It (abortion) will not be deter• minatlve for the Senate,” Metzenbaum told two prominent anti-abortion witnesses who claim that in the past Mrs. O’Connor has favored abortion. Mrs. O’Connor says she abhors abortion but that her personal views would not affect her court decisions. Sen. Robert Dole told the same two anti-abortion witnesses he did not think a nominee should have to “repudiate” the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision, which legalized abortion, to gain confirmation.
WASHINGTON – With Senate confirmation virtually certain but still a few days away, Sandra Day O’Connor already has begun to assume the role of the first woman U.S. Supreme Court justice. The Arizona Appeals Court Judge has reportedly picked one of her four law clerks. The Senate is expected to confirm Judge O’Connor Tuesday, and the swearing in will be held Sept. 25. Despite a constant ordeal of judicial preparation and hearings since President Reagan announced her nomination ,July 7, ,Judge O’Connor has apparently taken time to chose a woman Arizona State University law school graduate to work as her law clerk. “It (the law clerk) is a woman,” assistant U.S. attorney general Bob McConnell told The Phoenix Gazette Friday. “She’s an Arizona State University law school graduate from a few years back who has been practicing law.” JUDGE O’CONNOR, secluded in a Washington apartment arranged by departing Justice Potter Stewart, was not available Friday to identify her choice of a law clerk. Barrett McGurn , press officer for the Supreme Court, also could not name the woman. But , he said, the job is one of the most prestigious for a young lawyer, and many are contending. “It puts them on the fast track,” he said. “They go on to become Cabinet members and some return as justices.” In Phoenix, a spokeswoman at the law firm of Fennemore, Craig, von Ammon & Udall, said Ruth V. McGregor left those offices last week to take the law clerk position with Judge O’Connor. A call to the McGregor
WASHINGTON (AP) – Supreme Court nominee Sandra Day O’Connor, completing three days of confirmation hearings, declined to endorse the idea teen-agers should be denied abortions unless they have a parent’s permission. However, she told the Senate Judiciary Committee Friday she believes teen-agers should voluntarily consult with their parents before having abortions. Mrs. O’Connor’s refusal to call for mandatory parental consent for abortions or receipt of birth control information came during a final exchange with her principal adversary on the committee, Sen. Jeremiah Denton, R-Ala. In most cases, the Supreme Court has ruled that states may not require doctors to obtain the consent of a teen-ager’s parents before performing a requested abortion. In answer to questions about abortions for teen-agers, Mrs. O’Connor said, “It i~ my personal view that I would want the child to consult the parents .” Conservatives on the committee pursued Mrs. O’Connor to the end on her specific views on abortion without getting the kind of answers they really wanted. She made it clear on several occasions that she personally opposes abortion, but gave_no hint as to how she might vote on the explosive issue as a Supreme Court justice. The 51-year-old Arizona appeals court judge apologized for not being more specific on abortion and a variety of other issues but politely and repeatedly said that to do so might prejudice rulings she might make . After using an extra half hour in an attempt to pin down
WASHINGTON -The anti-abortion forces opposing the Supreme Court nomination of Sandra Day O’Connor fired their last shot Friday in a hopeless bid to persuade the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject the Arizona judge.
In its third day of testimony, the committee heard from pro-life groups opposed to the 51-year-old Arizona Appeals Court judge and listened to legal organizations and Arizona political leaders laud the qualifications of the first female nomination in the 190-year history of the high court. At a luncheon break, Sen. Dennis DeConcini, D-Ariz., one of the first to push for O’Connor’s nomination, said it appeared that at most three committee members were wavering – Sens. Jeremiah Denton, R-Ala.; John East, R-N.C.; and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa. “My gut feeling is that they’re going to come around,” DeConcini said. He added that when he conferred with Denton on Friday morning, the Alabama senator said he’d like to vote for O’Connor, but that he had “to satisfy my conscience” about the abortion issue. After listening to some three dozen witnesses, committee chairman Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., told reporters, “In my judgment she will be confirm~d overwhelmingly with few, if any, votes against her in committee or in the Senate.” A decision could come when the Judiciary Committee meets Tuesday, although any member could force a one-week delay. As O’Connor walked out of the hearing room, she was asked how she thought the hearings went. “I thought it went OK,” she replied.
Editor: With reference to the upcoming Senate confirmation vote on the nomination of Judge Sandra O’Connor to the United States Supreme Court: Count that day lost whose low descending sun does not find Judge Sandra O’Connor’s nomination confirmed – and her critics “put on the run.” Al Hertwig Mesa
O’Connors Make Off With the Door Prize, Too Judge Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman nominee to the Supreme Court, made her debut on the Washington black-tie circuit last night and stole the show at the Wolf Trap Associates Ball. She also made off with the door prize. Seriously. John and Sandra O’Connor won round-trip airfare for two to Morocco in what appeared to be a legitimate drawing at the end of the ball. They were shocked. Not to mention slightly embarrassed. “I can’t believe this,” Judge O’Connor said. “All I wanted was a one-way ticket to the Supreme Court.” Much laughter. “I think we’ll need the judgment of a competent lawyer to find out if we can accept this,” said John O’Connor, who happens to be a lawyer himself. More laughter. “I hope we can win like this next Wednesday.” Judge O’Connor finished three days of confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday, and her nomination will be up for a vote before the full Senate on Wednesday. Because of her sensitive position, she later said they might not accept the trip. “It’s just a prize, but it may be a problem,” she explained. “We’ll have to check into it over the weekend.” The door prize reflected the theme – “The Road to Morocco” – of this year’s ball thrown by the Wolf Trap Associates, a fund-raising arm of the performing arts center. Guests paid $125 apiece to attend. The food was marginally Moroccan and cocktails were served from under Moroccan-like gazebo tents. But the music was big-band.
WASHINGTON – A doctor from Scottsdale on Friday reluctantly opposed the nomination of Sandra O’Connor as the first woman justice of the U.S. Supreme Court because Judge O’Connor refused to declare her unqualified support for the anti -abortion movement dUl’ing Senate Judiciary Committee hearings. Dr. Carolyn Gerster, co-founder of the Arizona Right to Life Committee, told the panel on its final day of hearings into the nomination that she regrets having to oppose Judge O’Connor, whom she has known since the early 1970s. Dr. Gerster, herself a successful woman in a maledominated profession, said, “I believe the nomination of a woman to the Supreme Court is about 200 years overdue. I wish with all my heart that I could support this nominee from Arizona.” She praised the judge and former Arizona state senator as “a highly intelligent, dedicated, capable and likable person.” But she opposed the nomination because she is not satisfied that Judge O’Connor, whose three days of testimony ended Friday, fully has repudiated certain pro-abortion votes she cast while a member of the Arizona Legislature from 1969 to 1975. At the conclusion of the hearing, Committee Chairman Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., reiterated his confidence that Judge O’Connor will be confirmed overwhelmingly by the full Senate. But he backtracked from earlier predictions that the confirmation will come as soon as next week. Thurmond said the Judiciary Committee will meet Tuesday to consider the nomination, but he noted
Sandra Day O’Connor’s confirmation hearings for appointment to the Supreme Court were more of a challenge to her stamina than her intellect. She was, if anything, over-prepared for the fumbling, tedious questions of the Senators on the Judiciary Committee, leaving single-issue inquisitors in utter disarray.
Senators East, Grassley and Denton did what they could to make the committee look silly with repeated, clumsy and ultimately futile inquiries into Judge O’Connor’s views on pro- abortion court decisions and anti-abortion legislation. They affected surprise at her courteous but steady refusal to prejudge issues that still clamor for the Court’s attention. They helped her look very good indeed.
Not all of her testimony was reassuring. In her desire to enhance the prestige of state courts, Judge O’Connor was disquietingly cool to arguments that citizens with disputes based on the Constitution and Federal law should have easy access to the Federal courts. She testified with refreshing candor that the 1966 decision on confessions, *Miranda v. Arizona*, which some cite as an example of coddling criminals, had done little harm to law enforcement in her home state.
Yet she simplistically downgraded as “judge-made” the long-standing rule against courtroom use of illegally seized evidence. She also dismissed so-called judicial “activism” too quickly. “I know the difference between judging and legislating,” she said, the difference between “interpreting the law” and “making
WASIBNGTON -Opponents of the rule that prevents the use of illegally obtained evidence in criminal trials may have an ally in Supreme Court nominee Sandta O’Connor. Mrs. O’Connor, in the second day of hearings on her nomination, told the Senate Judiciary Committee that she has doubts about thl:! so-called exclusionary rule and also that she is personally in favor of the death penalty and opposed to court-ordered school busing. The exclusionary rule has been under fire from some quarters, including Chief Justice Warren Burger, Justice William Rehnquist and the Attorney General’s Task Force on Violent Crime. Critics charge that application of the rule sometimes requires valuable evidence to be disregarded because of procedural technicalities. Defenders of the rule say it is essential to protect the rights of accused persons. Drawing on her experience as a trial judge for four years, Mrs. O’Connor said she had seen little problem with the requirement that police officers inform persons of their rights when they are arrested. I But, she said, “the exclusionary rule … has proven to be much more difficult in [ terms of the administration of justice. There are times when perfectly relevant evidence, and indeed sometimes the only evidence in I the case,” is excluded when it might be usable “if different standards were applied.” “I don’t want to be interpreted as suggesting that I think it ( the rule) is inappropriate when force or trickery or some other reprehensible conduct has
WASHINGTON (AP) – Supreme Court nominee Sandra Day O’Connor said today she thinks teen-age girls should consult with their parents before seeking abortions, but refused to endorse mandatory parental consent. “It is my personal view that I would want the child to consult the parents,” Mrs. O’Connor said as she completed her part in the confirmation hearings. Asked by reporters as she left the hearing room for her assessment of the proceedings and her confirmation chances, Mrs. O’Connor replied, “I hope OK.” Her comment on parental consent came during a tense and prolonged question-and-answer session with conservative Sen. Jeremiah Denton, R-Ala., who previously had pressed Mrs . O’Connor for her personal and legal views on abortion. Denton was cut short by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., when Denton tried to quiz Mrs. O’Connor about what President Reagan knew about her abortion views before selecting her as the first woman on the court. “The subject we are considering here is her fitness for the position for which the president selected her,” Thurmond told Denton. How she was selected, he said, “is his business, not ours.” Denton originally was allotted 15 minutes to pose his questions, but was given an additional 45 minutes by Thurmond. They apparently did not help. Saying he felt frustrated because he could not determine “where you’re coming from philosophically” on abortion, Denton said , “I feel quite frustrated that these matters have not been
WASHINGTON – Judge Sandra O’Connor of Phoenix, on the verge of becoming the first woman justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday that busing of children to achieve racial balance in schools disrupts their education. Judge O’Connor, in her second day of testimony before the 18-member committee, also said she supports the death penalty and feels women in the military should not be assigned to battlefield duty. The committee’s hearings on President Reagan’s nomination of Judge O’Connor to the high court are expected to conclude today. Committee Chairman Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., has predicted her swift, overwhelming confirmation by his panel and by the full Senate.
The judge and former Arizona state senator has testified for more than eight hours before the committee. She is expected to return briefly today for further questioning by Sen .Jeremiah Denton, R-Ala., who was unable to attend Thursday’s afternoon session.
Throughout the hearing, Judge O’Connor has side-stepped attempts by senators to elicit comments on various Supreme Court rulings, notably the 1973 decision upholding the right of women to seek elective abortions.
She did, however, express her “personal views” on a number of issues, couching her answers each time by saying she would not let her private opinions influence her deliberations on cases before the high court.
In response to questions from Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, she said busing of schoolchildren, ordered by
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O’Connor also parried, without providing a substantive answer, Denton’s solicitation for her views on the legality of discriminating against homosexuals. Arizona Gov. Bruce Babbitt, who appointed O’Connor to her current judicial post, endorsed her nomination. He told the committee she is a “splendid” example of “a new generation of state and local leaders .” Representatives from women’s rights groups and the American Bar Association, as well as Phoenix Mayor Margaret Hance, also were called to the witness table to urge approval of O’Connor’s nomination. But two physician witnesses, Carolyn Gerster of Phoenix and J.C. Wilkie of New York City, voiced their opposition based on the abortion issue. “I wish with all my heart that I could support the nomination of this fellow Arizonan,” said Gerster, a vice president of the National Right to Life Committee. But she said that O’Connor’s record as a member of the Arizona Senate is one “consistently supportive of legalized abortion.” Wilkie, president of the National Right to Life Committee, said that those people who do not recognize the constitutional rights of fetuses are “not qilalified to sit on the federal courts.” O’Connor spent most of Thursday establishing that she shares the views of many conservatives . But the committee has yet to find out – even though most of its members appear anxious to know – if she will be a truly conservative Supreme Court justice.
WASHINGTON – Arizona politicians rallied around Sandra Day O’Connor today before the Senate Judiciary Committee as an antiabortionist from Scottsdale attacked her nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. Gov. Bruce Babbitt called the Arizona Court of Appeals judge a “nominee for this season in our constitutional history,” and Phoenix Mayor Margaret Hance said Judge O’Connor has “unimpeachably good character.” James McNulty, Board of Regents member from Bisbee, described for the panel Judge O’Connor’s legislative efforts to have alcoholics treated as sick people, rather than as criminals. REP. TONY WEST, R-Phoenix, said the nominee has gone through a “conversion process” since voting for an ill-fated attempt in 1970 to repeal Arizona’s law against abortion. But Dr. Carolyn Gerster, vice president of the national Right To Life Committee Inc., disagreed with West. “I wish, with all my heart, that I could support the nomination of this fellow Arizonan,” she said. She said Judge O’Connor’s record on abortion was misrepresented to President Reagan and has not been cleared in the three days of confirmation hearings before the Senate committee. Misrepresentation , evasion and distortion of fact have no place in this confirmation process,” she said. The committee will vote Tuesday, and the full Senate is expected to decide whether to confirm the nation’s first woman high court justice the same day. “WE FEEL THAT if the Senate confirms you, you will make an outstanding associate justice of
Supreme Court nominee Sandra D. O’Connor, testifying at her second day of confirmation hearings, said yesterday she was personally opposed to busing and in favor of the death penalty. She also expressed doubts, based on her own experiences as a trial judge, about the hotly debated exclusionary rule, which judges use to throw out evidence illegally seized by police. The Supreme Court is expected to confront all three controversial issues during O’Connor’s life term. They are also traditional targets of Reagan conservatives, and her statements yesterday seemed certain to reinforce her own conservative credentials. These have been questioned by leaders of the New Right, though she stressed that her personal views would play no role in the resolution of cases before the court. The first woman nominee thus concluded her testimony without mishap. In fact, though her lack of federal court experience has been criticized, many senators seemed dazzled by her command of federal law as case citations and statistics rolled easily off her tongue. At one point, she even corrected one committee member’s description of a recent Supreme Court ruling. Several Senate Judiciary Committee members did criticize her unwillingness to express opinions on specific cases, especially abortion rulings, and one, Sen. John P. East (R-N.C.), suggested that she was selectively avoiding comment in order to avoid controversy. Her handling of that criticism typified her performance. Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa),
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bet to cast a negative vote. Most endorsed her, and several predicted she will be approved overwhelmingly by the full Senate next week and sworn in before the court convenes Oct. 5. The small groups of picketers who had appeared outside the previous day did not return Thursday atla for the first time all the spectators standing line were able to obtain seats. Turley said he thought opposition was aimed at President Reagan rather than O’Connor. “I think they feel the president let them down a little bit in temlS of this appointment and they want to let him to know they’ve noticed it and they don’t want it to happen again.” Op~sition in _testimony today could provide the only fireworks m the proceedings. On the agenda ~e Dr. Car?lyn Gerster of the National Right to Life CoDlJlllttee and other pro-life and likely anti-O’Connor, witnesses. ‘ But first Gov. Bruce Babbitt is scheduled to add his praise. He’ll be followed by Phoenix Mayor Marga~et Hance, Arizona Regent James McNulty and Arizona Chamber of Commerce Director Bill Jacquin. Hamilton told the committee he came to support O’Coru_ior because_ “she is totally and resolutely COIDDlltted to the ideal of equal justice under the law.” He called her a “good and decent person of compassion and good will.” After the Ari~o~ House members spoke, Grassley, an unyielding pro-life advocate asked them if they would speculate about how o•’connor would vote in a Supreme Court abortion decision. All said they could not be sure. But Tony
WASHINGTON-Supreme Court nominee Sandra Day O’Connor served notice Thursday that she is likely to take conservative positions at the high court on important issues of criminal law. During the second day of her confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, O’Connor criticized what she called some “unfortunate” effects of the exclusionary rule-the principle that requires judges to exclude evidence from criminal trials if it has been obtained illegally by the police.
Stewart Took Liberal Approach
The nominee also reaffirmed her support as an Arizona legislator of the death penalty and of’ efforts to clamp down on the distribution of pornographic material. Retired Justice Potter Stewart, whom O’Connor is slated to replace, took a liberal approach in obscenity cases and generally resisted attempts at the high court to limit the scope of the exclusionary rule. O’Connor’s testimony suggests that her appointment may give new impetus to efforts to lift some legal constraints on law enforcement officials. By Thursday night, with her own testimony before the Judiciary Committee nearly complete, O’Connor’s confirmation seemed all but assured. Several members of the committee, including such leading conservatives as Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), assured O’Connor they will vote for her. At a time when President Reagan is scoring high in public opinion polls, and with O’Connor herself apparently a popular choice, most of the senators held back from any tough give-and-take with
WASHINGTON – Supreme Court nominee Sandra Day O’Connor is sending out the word: she shares the views of many conservatives. But the Senate Judiciary Committee has yet to find out – even though most of its members appear eager to know – whether she would be a truly conserv.ative Supreme Court justice. As her confirmation proceedings entered what’s scheduled to be their final hours today, that question did not seem to matter. Ten of the committee’s 18 members have gone on the record as SUPporting Mrs. O’Connor’s nomination, and confirmation by the full Senate appears assured. In more than five hours of testimony yesterday, the first woman ever nominated to the nation’s highest’ court divulged these personal views: – She abhors abortion. – She thinks it “inappropriate” for women to participate in combat during war . – She opposes forced busing to achieve school desegregation. – She favors the death penalty for certain crimes. – She believes a 67-year-old legal doctrine that bars the use of evidence seized illegally by police may be adding to the nation’s crime rate a~d perhaps is being applied too stringently. – She favors a limited role for the nation’s courts. But, as she has since the Capitol Hill hearings began Wednesday, Mrs. O’Connor emphasized that her “personal views and philosophies” would not affect her Supreme Court votes. And she disavowed any hint that she will oe President Reagan’s conservative envoy to the court. “I was not asked to make any commitments about what
WASHINGTON (AP) – Supreme Court nominee Sandra Day O’Connor said today she thinks teen-age girls should consult with their parents before seeking abortions, but refused to endorse mandatory parental consent. “It is my personal view that I would want the child to consult the parents,” Mrs. O’Connor raid as she completed her part in the confirmation hearings. Asked by reporters as she left the hearing room for her assessment of the proceedings and her confirmation chances, Mrs. O’Connor replied, “I hope OK.” Her comment on parental consent came during a tense and prolonged questionand-answer session with conservative Sen. Jeremiah Denton, R-Ala., who previously had pressed Mrs. O’Connor for her personal and legal views on abortion. Denton was cut short by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., when Denton tried to quiz Mrs. O’Connor about what President Reagan knew about her abortion views before selecting her as the first woman on the nation’s highest court. “The subject we are considering here is her fitness for the position for which the president selected her,” Thurmond told Denton. How she was selected, he said, “is his business, not ours.” Denton originally was allotted 15 minutes to pose his questions, but was given an additional 45 minutes by Thurmond. However, saying he felt frustrated because he could not determine “where you’re coming from philosophically” on abortion, Denton said, “I feel quite frustrated that these matters have not been fully developed.
Despite persistent questioning, Sandra Day O’Connor finished two days of Senate confirmation hearings yesterday with every prospect of becoming the first woman to sit on the Supreme Court. Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee heaped praise on the Arizona appeals court judge after their often intense interrogation failed to raise any major stumbling blocks to her confirmation. Unless interest groups opposed to her positions on social issues – groups that are scheduled to testify today on her nomination – find new issues on her fitness, O’Connor appeared to have cinched easy Senate approval. The hearings are to end today, and a committee vote is scheduled for early next week. Speaking on crime, she said there has been a “general breakdown ” of society’s standards on moral behavior. Although she said she has no solutions, she expressed the view that a mobile society with its lack of family and neighborhood ties contributes to an unacceptably high crime rate. Under questioning from Senator Max Baucus, D-Mont., she conceded that she still agrees with her 1970 vote that opposed a move to strip the Supreme Court of its right to review such issues as abortion. Despite repeated attempts to zero in on her abortion views, O’Connor evaded any outright declarations of her legal position on the inflammatory subject. She said she herself would not have an abortion, but she approves of the procedure if it is needed to save a mother’s life.
[Photo caption: As Sandra Day O’Connor_ testified
O’Connor sails through second day of questioning
WASHINGTON-Sandra Day O’Connor, her confirmation to the Supreme Court all but assured, completed a second day of testimony at Senate Judiciary Committee hearings yesterday . She answered questions about her views on subjects from criminal law to women in military combat, as members of the committee praised her record, her stamina and her prospects to become the first woman to serve on the court. While some senators persisted in ques …
Judge Sandra Day O’Connor, her confirmation to the Supreme Court all but assured, completed a second day of testimony at Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings today. She answered questions about her views on subjects from criminal law to women in military combat as members of the committee praised her record, her stamina and her prospects to become the first woman to serve on the Court.
While some Senators persisted in questioning he r views on abortion,and some scattered anti-abortion pickets remained at their post outside the Senate Office Building, the tone of the hearing was considerably more relaxed than at yesterday’s opening. At a midday recess, Judge O’Connor, her husband, John, and their three sons were guests of hon or at a lunch given by the Judiciary Committee’s chairman, Strom Thurmond, Republican of South Carolina.
”I’m proud of you,” Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, told Judge O’Connor as he completed his questioning. ”I’ll be proud to see you serve on the Supreme Court.”
Senator Jeremiah Denton, Republican of Alabama, said, ”I have a tremendous respect for you as a woman who has filled the indispensible roles of wife and mother and who has then gone on to professional accomplishment in pretty much of an ideal format.”
Working for Women’s Rights
After Judge O’Connor indicated that she did not think it would be appropriate to campaign from the Court for adoption of the proposed Federal equal rights amendment, she was exhorted by one
Washington-Supreme Court nominee Sandra Day O’Connor told senators yesterday she had not made any promises to President Reagan about how she would vote as a justice. Judge O’Connor expressed strongly conservative views on a wide range of social issues, but she continued to say her personal views were beside the point. The Arizona Judge spent a second five-hour day before the Senate Judiciary Committee, and appeared close to winning over the few remaining skeptics on that panel. Senator Charles Grassley (R, Iowa), who had appeared to be a potential opponent, told her near the end of the session that he was having to struggle to find reasons to vote no when the committee votes on her nomination, probably next Tuesday. He even suggested that he might see her be!ore the committee again, for promotion to the chief justiceship. For now, she has been nominated only to be one of the eight associate justices. Another skeptic, Senator Jeremiah A. Denton (R, Ala.), told her that his review of her personal life had shown her to be “pretty much an ideal woman.” Mr. Denton apparently will be the last senator to question Judge O’Connor. He has a final 15-minute round scheduled before s~e is finished as a witness today. The committee plans to end its hearings by early afternoon. Only one potential challenger, Senator John East (R, N.C.), seemed reluctant to embrace her nomination openly yesterday. He told her of his frustration that she would not discuss the controversial Supreme Court ruling
Coalition Blasts ‘Coverup’ Of Court Nominee’s Record
A coalition of conservative and anti-abortion groups, complaining that Ronald Reagan has ignored them in his administration, yesterday accused the president of political betrayal in his nomination of Sandra D. O’Connor to the U.S. Supreme Court. The coalition warned that the nomination will cost the p~esident c?nser vative grassroots support for his economic program and will create new political difficulties for Republican senators who vote to confirm O’Connor over the protest of pro-life activists. But Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker dismissed conservative criticism of O’Connor, saying it is not likely to be a serious obstacle to her confirmation .” He predicted that she “will be confirmed easily by the U.S. Senate.” Sen. Barry Goldwater, R-Ariz., called the coalition’s warnings “a lot of foolish claptrap” and said conservative groups were risking their credibility by their attacks on O’Connor. The White House believes its effort to defuse right-wing opposition to the nomination is working, but opponents vowed not to give up the fight. Representatives of 21 “New Right” organizations held a news conference yesterday in a Senate conference room to launch a broadside attack against the O’Connor nomination, with the announced intention of making her the Ernest Lefever of the abortion issue. “Just as liberals were active against Ernest Lefever because of his symbolism, we believe there is important symbolism in this nomination,”
Supreme Court nominee Sandra D. O’Connor, facing her first day of confirmation hearing questioning, said she made a mistake 11 years ago when she voted in the Arizona legislature to decriminalize abortion. ‘ It was her one important concession, in a day filled with questions about abortion, to the conservatives who have challenged her nomination. But she declined repeatedly to go any further and say how she would rule on that or any other issue on the high court. She assured the Republican-dominated Senate Judiciary Committee, however, that she believes in a limited role for the federal judiciary in American life. “I do not believe it is the function of the judiciary to step in and change the law because the times have changed,” she said. “I do well understand the difference between legislating and judging. “As a judge,” she said, “it is not my function to develop public policy.” The opening of the O’Connor hearings, as senator after senator noted yesterday, was a historic event: the first time the Senate has ever considered a woman for the Supreme Court. Easy Senate confirmation is expected within the next three weeks. It was also the first time since her nomination that O’Connor has explained her record and her views publicly, though she began the hearings by telling the senators that it would be improper for her to be too specific in answer to questions about specific issues she might confront on the court. She did get specific about her actions as an Arizona state senator
Senate committee hearing is told she personally opposes abortion WASHINGTON – Sandra Day O’Connor of Phoenix, virtually assured of becoming the first woman justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that she opposes abortion but would not let her personal views affect her ruling on any issue that comes before the high court. Judge O’Connor also said in her first day of testimony before the 18-member committee that she believes in “judicial restraint” and views the role of the Supreme Court as one of interpreting the law rather than of legislating. After Judge O’Connor concluded more than three hours of testimony, Committee Chairman Strom Thurmond, RS.C., predicted that the former Arizona state senator will be endorsed by the committee and confirmed by the full Senate next week. “I don’t see any problem with her confirmation,” he said. “I thought she made an excellent witness. She impressed me as being bright, alert, dedicated and possessed of a fine analytical mind.” Questioning of Judge O’Connor resumes this morning. The hearing on her nomination is scheduled to end Friday. – Thurmond, a conservative Southerner, began the questioning by focusing immediately on the only issue that has stirred any meaningful opposition to her appointment – her voting record on abortion-related issues as a state senator from 1969 to 1975. When asked by Thurmond her opinion on abortion, Judge O’Connor prefaced her answer by saying, “The – personal views and
WASHINGTON-Judge Sandra O’Connor began what seems certain to be a smooth sail toward Senate confirmation as the first woman Justice on the Supreme Court. I~ the first of three scheduled days of hearmgs before the Senate Judiciary Com mittee, Mrs. O’Connor maintained that she personally opposes abortion and strongly re spects the family. . The 51-year-old Arizona appeals court Judge cautiously fielded questions about her iudicial Philosop~y: She lar.i:elv avoided controversy, often givmg a rote recitation of her understanding of current law without expressing her views of the law. Asked early on in the hearings about her stand on abortion, Judge O’Connor said she opposes it “as a matter of birth control or otherwise.” . • Respect for Famllies In her own opening statement, she went out of her way to show her respect for the importance of families and family life. / Reading a portion of a standard marriage ~erem?ny she has used as a judge, she said: Marriage is far more than an exchange of vows .. It is the foundation of the family, it’s mankmd’s basic unit of society, it’s the hope of the world and the strength of our coun try.” She then introduced her husband John, a Phoenix lawyer, and her three sons.’ Her comments on abortion and on the f~ilf apparently were aimed at blunting cntJc1sm of her record on abortion by rightto-life groups that charge that she was in fa vor of abortion during four years as an Ari zona state senator. A handful of anti•abor tion demonstrators picketed
WASHINGTON (AP) – Sandra Day O’Connor, apparently coasting toward easy confirmation as the first woman on the Supreme Court said Wednesday she personally believes abortion is abhorrent, but would not let her opinion affect how she handled the issue as a member of the court. “It is a practice I would not have engaged in,” Mrs. O’Connor told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee considering her nomination. Describing her own “abhorrence” to abortion the 51-year-old Arizona appeals court judge said her feelings about the subject are a product of her sense of family values, my sense of how I lead my own life.” Nonetheless, she insisted that “personal views and philosophies” would not be allowed – “as much as that is possible” – to affect her judgment on the facts or constitutionality of cases before the court. After nearly six hours of testimony by Mrs. O’Connor, Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., the committee chairman, predicted untroubled confirmation by the panel and the full Senate . He said a vote in the committee could come as early as Tuesday, with a Senate vote the next day. “I think she handled herself quite well ” he said. “I don’t see a problem In her confirmation .” ‘ Thurmond and several other committee members asked questions about abortion, the one issue around which opposition to her nomination has developed. “My own view in the area of abortion is that I am opposed to it as a matter of birth control or otherwise,” she said. “The subject of abortion is a valid one
WASHINGTON – Judge Sandra Day O’Connor yesterday moved easily toward confirmation as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, emphasizing before a generally appreciative Senate Judiciary Committee her belief that “the proper role of the judiciary is one of interpreting and applying the law, not making it.” The first of three scheduled days of confirmation hearings contained few surprises. The members of the committee asked the Arizona Court of Appeals judge questions she seemed to have expected, and she provided answers the senators seemed pleased to hear. Members of the committee, including its chairman, Republican Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, indicated that confirmation was a virtual certainty. But if the hearing lacked doubt as to outcome, it did not lack drama or a sense that history was being made by the imminent confirmation of the first woman Supreme Court justice in the court’s 191-year history. “Better 190 years late than never,” Republican Sen. Robert Dole of Kansas told the nominee, adding: “You are among friends.” “As the first woman to be nominated as a Supreme Court justice, I am particularly honored,” O’Connor told the committee in her opening statement. “But I happily share the honor with millions of, American women of yesterday and today whose abilities and conduct have given me this opportunity for service.” O’Connor’s opening statement, which followed an hour of comments by members of the committee, set the tone for much of what followed. She
w ASHINGTON – There were hundreds of them. Each carried a . placard proclaiming opposition to Sandra O’Connor’s nomination to the Supreme Court. Most had spent the previous night sitting up on chartered buses. They had made their uncomfortable but impassioned journeys from 12 states. Now they were marching in front of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. There were grim looks on their faces. The men seemed angrier than the women. Somehow, they had transferred their revulsion for abortion to a fear and dislike of Judge O’Connor, a woman they no doubt would be unable to recognize if she walked into their midst. While they were marching up and down and screaming about their revulsion for abortion, a remarkable thing happened. Supreme Court Associate Justice Harry Blackmun, the man who authored the court’s majority opinion favoring abortion in the Roe vs. Wade case, walked right through their parade on his way to work. The justice who had received thousands of hate letters from right-to-life adherents after his decision was published in 1973 was not recognized by a single demonstrator. The messages on the signs were irrational. They demanded defeat for Judge O’Connor’s nomination. To these marchers, the tiny appeals-court judge from Arizona was not the first woman in history nominated to sit on the Supreme Court. They saw in Judge O’Connor, if their signs were a true indication, a mixture of Adolf Hitler and Charles Manson. For the signs spoke of murder and betrayal. “Sandra Is An
WASHINGTON (AP) – After one day of parrying with generally friendly and consistently courteous Senate inquisitors, Supreme Court nominee Sandra Day O’Connor has the look of a winner.
At her first day of confirmation hearings yesterday, several senators tried to draw her into a discussion on her views on such explosive social issues and weighty legal problems as abortion, busing, the death penalty, Supreme Court jurisdiction, citizen access to the federal courts and the rule barring the use of evidence obtained illegally. They usually failed. Mrs. O’Connor, the first woman nominated for the nation’s highest court, did say that she personally is opposed to abortion. That was something less than condemnation of the so-called pro-choice argument, and she otherwise escaped controversy by repeatedly stating that substantive responses would be improper. The Senate Judiciary Committee and crowd of onlookers jamming the Senate hearing room thus obtained little insight about what to expect from Mrs. O’Connor during her anticipated lifetime Supreme Court membership. They did find out that Mrs. O’Connor can sit for long periods of time. When asked late Wednesday if she desired a short break in the questioning, she opted to forge ahead. They also found out she did her homework. When Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, quizzed her about a recent Supreme Court ruling, Mrs. O’Connor had to correct him. The ruling, she pointed out correctly, dealt with the need to notify parents of certain young girls
WASHINGTON – During her first public questioning by senators who must pass judgment on her, Sandra Day” O’Connor alternately displayed the qualities of a cautious lawyer, an evasive politician and a learned legal scholar. The approach she took in fending off .questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday may not have total ly satisfied those concerned about her views. Regardless, the relative ease with w~i’h she handled the committee members’ queries seemed to move the Arizona appeals court judge closer to becoming the Supreme Court’s first woman justice. ON THE OPENING day of her confirmation hearings, Judge O’Connor seemed to receive high marks, score legal points and receive support from those judging her qualifications to replace Justice Potter Stewart, who stepped down from the court two months ago. With the only overt opposition to her nomination directed at her stands on abortion and other social issues, she took the offensive – declaring in her opening statement she would not detail her views on specific issues that might later come before the high court. “To do so would mean I have prejudged the matter or have morally committed myself to a certain position,” she said. That position may not have pleased abortion foes, but she held to it during an afternoon of questioning by a dozen senators. Only after persistent questioning did : she say she found abortion abhorrent and never would have one herself. SEN. JOHN EAST , R-N.C., attempted to assure Judge O’Connor
WASHINGTON – No promises were made to President Reagan when he discussed an appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court, Sandra Day O’Connor told a Senate committee today . “I was not asked to make any commitments … about what I would do or how I would resolve any issues that would come before the court,” the Arizona Appeals Court judge said . Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, was questioning Judge O’Connor on the second day of a three-day confirmation hearing before the Judiciary Committee. The nominee declined to give any details of her two discussions with Reagan. “DID THE president ask you not to reveal the conversation?” Grassley asked. Judge O’Connor said Reagan made no such suggestion- “It was my ‘ perception of what was proper.” Sen. Howell Heflin, D-Ala., opened his questioning by asking, “Did the president offer you a jellybean?” Dressed in a suit but performing like a figure skater, Judge O’Connor continued to maneuver around tough judicial issues. SHE EXPLAINED that she would not want to say anything that would require her to sit out a Supreme Court decision later . But the judge said she had voted in favor of a memorial in the Arizona Legislature to Congress, asking Congress to limit busing for racial balance in schools. Recalling a 75-mile round trip to school from her ranch home near …
WASHINGTON (AP) – Sandra Day O’Connor, in the second round of Senate committee questioning on her Supreme Court nomination, said today she personally opposes mandatory school busing and favors the death penalty. In a tense exchange with Sen. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, she also asserted that President Reagan had not asked for any commitments in exchange for the nomination. “I was not asked to make any commitments . . . about what I would do or how I would resolve any issue to come before the court,” she told the Senate Judiciary Committee. The conservative Grassley twice asked her to say that she had not been asked for any commitments. O’Connor said she feels school busing to achieve integration can be “disruptive” to children, citing her own long treks to school when she was a child. “I just think that isn’t a system that often is terribly beneficial to the child,” she said of school busing. She also noted that during her tenure in the Arizona state Senate she voted for a resolution urging action “at the federal level” that would “terminate the use of forced busing in desegregation cases.” O’Connor also said that while in the Arizona state Senate she had voted in favor of a death penalty bill. “I felt that it was an appropriate vote then, and I have not changed my views,” she told Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa. She helped draft the bill to respond to the Supreme Court decision striking down the death penalty laws in many states. The 51-year-old Arizona appeals court judge also
WASHINGTON – The earnest young man from Terry, Miss. with the wispy beard and the Instamatic camera waited about 2½ hours in line to walk through the airport-type security arch and see the woman who would, in his opinion, usurp his right to freedom of religion and allow peimissive abortions. David Harris, a freshman from Shelton College, a fundamentalist Christian school in New Jersey, had boarded one of two buses for the trip. When Arizona Appellate Judge Sandra Day O’Connor began her opening statement before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday morning about 75 of Harris’ cohorts were marclililg in front of the. building, passing out “No to O” buttons and waving massproduced “Reject O’Connor” placards. About half were anti-abortion advocates; the rest complained O’Connor was anti-religion because s~e has opposed tax-exempt status for religi.>us schools. It was an all-white crowd, many of them young students with short hair and freshscrubbed faces. But it was a surprisingly meager gathering . considering how vehemently abortion foes had rallied against O’Connor. By the time senators had begwi questioning her, most of the protesters were inside the hearing room leaning quietly against the back wall, waiting in line or milling about the Senate building. By the afternoon session, most placards were stacked neatly on the steps, only a handful of the true believers. remaining outside in the hwnid Washington weather. “I’m not surprised that (the anti abortion crowd) is that
PHOENIX – Sen. Stan Turley, R-Mesa, reached into his own ranch upbringing to draft the comments he’ll make in support of Sandra O’Connor’s nomination to the Supreme Court. Turley said he expects to testify today or Fri- ‘day before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Turley, who grew up on the Sundown _Ranch on the Mogollon Rim and later ran his o”0 ranch for 18 years in the Queen Creek area, said he pondered what to say for several weeks. He decided to emphasize O’Connor’s roots in the soil of Arizona “rather than saying she had a fine scholastic record at Stanford.” Turley’s prepared remarkci stress O’Connor’s upbringing on a ranch near Duncan and her “heritage from a pioneer family in Arizona that is unique.” “To be reared in this environment where so many things are beyond ~n’s ~ontrol sometimes, not always, but sometlffies gives an added dimension of character to those who are subject to those forces,” he said. “A dimension of humility, faith in a divine providence, integrity and common sense developed from meeting that type of chaD:enge. “In my opinion Sandra bas this added dimension to a high degree. True, it is an intangible, but nevertheless real.” Turley also said he plans to defend o•eo~o.-‘s stands on abortion and the Equal Rights Amendment. He plans to tell the committee he thinks O’Connor has “demonstrated strong belief” in the separation of the three branches of government. “She has shown an impatience with the judicial branch when it has been used to make law rather
An organized mail campaign is being conducted against Sandra O’Connor, who has been nominated by President Ronald Reagan for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. It is easy to spot because letters use the same phrases and often are mimeographed. Such campaigns are common, and this one is no different than others . It contains the usual mudslinging, distortion of facts, innuendoes and character assassination. Fortunately, O’Connor has been in the political arena for a long time, and she probably is paying little attention to the misguided and misinformed attacks. Having known O’Connor for many years, and having worked with her on civic and political projects, we are amused that attacks are coming from the far right. Her record shows that she is a member of Arizona’s conservative establishment, and she definitely is not a liberal. The worst smearing and distorting is coming from anti-abortionists. The truth is that she is not an advocate of abortion and took a middle ground as a state senator. It is probable that the nomination will be approved without serious opposition. In the process, members of the Senate should recognize that it is not judicially appropriate for a prospective justice to give opinions on issues which the court will have to decide. If O’Connor is forced to do this, she may have a conflict of interest when related cases come up. Narrow issues do not detennine judicial fitness. Rather, the Senate must weigh O’Connor’s knowledge of law, understanding of the Constitution
WASHINGTON (AP)-Sandra Day O’Connor, in the second round of Senate committee questioning on her Supreme Court nomination, said today she personally favors the death penalty and opposes mandatory school busing. In a tense exchange with Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, she also asserted that President Reagan had not asked for any commitments in exchange for the nomination. “I was not asked to make any commitments . . . about what I would do or how I would resolve any issue to come before the court,” she told the Senate Judiciary Committee. THE CONSERVATIVE Grassley twice asked her to say that she had not been asked for any commitments. She said she feels school busing to achieve integration can be “disruptive” to children, citing her own long treks to school when she was a child. “I just think that isn’t a system that often is terribly beneficial to the child,” she said of school busing. She also noted that during her tenure in the Arizona Senate she voted for a resolution urging action “at the federal level” that would “terminate the use of forced busing in desegregation cases.” Mrs. O’Connor also said that while in the state Senate she had voted in favor of a death penalty bill. “I felt that it was an appropriate vote then, and I have not changed my views,” she told Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa. She helped draft the bill to respond to the Supreme Court decision striking down death penalty laws in many states. THE 51-YEAR-OLD Arizona appeals court judge also strongly defended her
CAUTIOUS
For a historical figure, Judge Sandra O’Connor is an unpretentious sort. She has bright hazel eyes, brown-gray hair, a metallic western voice. While the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee ransacked their minds for adjectives sufficient to the occasion of nominally at least passing judgment on the first woman to be nominated to the Supreme Court, she sat with her ankles neatly crossed, gravely heeding each speaker with composed attention. She is an achieving woman without an edge. She is good-looking without being alienatingly beautiful and bright without being alarmingly intellectual. Like the man who chose her, Ronald Reagan, she knows the high art of not giving unnecessary offense. Whenever she could, she discoursed on the importance of the separation of powers and the relationship of the states to the federal government, two safe subjects about which she plainly hoped the committee would feel she has the deepest convictions. She must have convinced even the most dubious conservatives that she is conservative by nature if not in judicial philosophy, of which she disclosed nothing during what one senator ceremoniously called her “ordeal.” The flavor of the proceedings is better conveyed by the fact that two senators during the flowery morning suggested to her that in view of her record and the breathtaking breadth of her support- it goes from Goldwater to Kennedy, from pussycats to militant feminists-that the White House is not beyond her grasp. Almost two hours
WASHINGTON (AP ) – The Senat e is cranking up its advice and consent machine again as the Judi – ciary Committee prepares to consider t h e n omi n ation of Sa ndr a Da y O’Connor to th e Suprem e Court. The outcome, as usual, is pretty well as su re d . Mr s. O’Conno r is expected to be asked more th an th e usual nu mber of question s. But in th e end, she is expected to be recommende d for confirmation and confirme d by the full Senate . The process has been the subject of debate ever since th e Constitu tional Convent ion of 1778. It was denounc ed as a “rubberstam p” as recently as 1977. But it su rvives wit h little change . Article II of the Constitut ion gives the president the power to appoint the principal officers of the federal governme nt “by an d with the advice and consent of the Senate.” The prov ision itse lf was a compromise . Some delegates to the Con stitu tio nal Convention wanted to give the Senate the power to ma ke the appointme nt s. Others wanted the president to have it . The result left the standa rds for confirmation vague, as they remai n today. Alexander Ham ilton wrote in The Federa list that, “If an ill appointment should be made, the executive , for nominating, and the Senate, for approving, would partici pate, thoug h in different degrees, in the opprobr ium and disgrace.” According to a st udy by Common Cause, a group which monitors the government on beha lf of what it considers the public interest, the Senate received 133,302 nominat ions
TRI-COUNTY: Gavel to gavel coverage of the Sandra O’Connor senate confirmation hearings will be broadcast on KAET/Channel 8, Sept 9, 10 and 11 beginning at 7 p.m. KAET, the public television affiliate in Phoenix, is producing the coverage on an exclusive basis for the Arizona market and will also transmit the program via the Westar I satellite to all public television stations and their affiliated cable channels. Sandra Day O’Connor, who spent her young years on her parents Lazy B Ranch southeast of Duncan and is now a judge on the Arizona Court of Appeals, is the first woman nominated for a seat on the United States Supreme Court. This makes the upcoming telecast especially interesting for people of eastern Arizona as well as the state as a whole The nominee will questioned by members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is chaired by Strom Thurmond (R, South Carolina ). Other Republican members of the committee include Paul Laxalt of Nevada, Orrin Hatch of Utah, Robert Dole of Kansas and Charles Mathias of Maryland . Democratic committee members include Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts , Robert Byrd of West Virginia, Howard Metzenbaum of Ohio and Dennis DeConcin i of Arizona. Witnesses will not question Judge O’Connor, but will read prepared statements. As of last Frid ay, the list of witnesses had not been confirmed, but it is expected that Senator Barry Goldwater would appear as a witness . While the confirmation of O’Connor appears to be a foregone conclusion, there is
