Law review article

Foreword to ASIL Handbook for Judges

Law review article / By

This overview of international law should provide much-needed background in an area of the law that is rapidly emerging in ways that affect courts here and abroad. The reason for the expanded focus on international law, of course, is globalization. No institution of government can afford now to ignore the rest of the world. The importance of globalization should not be underestimated. Thirty percent of our gross domestic product is internationally derived. We operate today under a large array of international agreements and organizations: the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, NAFTA, the World Trade Organization, the Hague Conventions on Collection of Evidence Abroad and on Service of Process, and the New York Convention on Enforcement of Arbitral Awards, to mention only a few. But globalization is much more than simply these agreements and organizations. Globalization also represents a greater awareness of, and access to, peoples and places far different from our own. The fates of nations are more closely intertwined than ever before, and we are more acutely aware of the connections. As we learned in this country on September 11, 2001, these connections can sometimes be devastating rather than constructive. But as we also are learning in the post-September 11 world, the power of international cooperation and international under standing is much greater than the obstacles we face.

The word “globalization” has many connotations, some positive and

Law review article

Music and the Law

Law review article / By

[A]n overspeaking judge is no well-tuned cymbal.

-Francis Bacon, The Essay on Judicature

As you know, I’ve made a life in the law. And I’ve always loved music, from childhood on.

Lawyers feature in plenty of operas, of course. It starts with Moses, the first Lawgiver, in Rossini’s Mose and Arnold Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron. As expected, Moses generally comes off as an admirable character. But operatic evaluations of later lawyers are more critical. What we find in opera concerning lawyers after Moses is Puccini’s opera Gianni Schicchi about forging a will; a lawyer in Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess who sells Bess a divorce for a dollar-when he learns Bess was never actually married, he raises the price of the “divorce” to $1.50; we also see the lawyer in Strauss’ Die Fledermaus,who is so incompetent that he gets his client’s sentences increased.

The law’s presence is also palpable in the many operas which take place in jails. Jails must be irresistible to composers looking for a place to set a reflective aria-there is plenty of time to think in jail; there is nothing better to do; and the resonance is good. There are jail scenes in Faust, Don Carlo, and Tosca, for instance. Fideliot akes place entirely in jail, portraying a disguised woman’s successful attempt to save her wrongly imprisoned and soon-to-be-executed husband.

Gilbert and Sullivan also come through, as usual, with well placed pokes at the law. In Trial by fury,we meet a lonely Lord Chancellor whose job of approving

Interview

Interview at TEDxMidwest

Interview / By

Sandra Day O’Connor I grew up on a remote Ranch, half in Arizona, half in New Mexico. We were 35 miles from the nearest town, which was just a little tiny town. And I kind of grew up on the back of a horse. They had me sitting on a horse before I could walk. And you may have a picture behind me of my favorite little horse, Chico, who was he was taken from a wild horse herd. And we called him Chico, which means small and Spanish because he was small for being a horse. And the reason I liked him is when I fell off, because everybody does when they’re young and learning to ride a lot. He would wait for me to get back on and none of the other verses would do that. So Chico was by far my favorite. And he was a great little horse. And I love growing up on a ranch. But when it came time to go to school, there was no school. And so I had to go away. I had grandparents who lived in El Paso, Texas, it was over 200 miles away. I went to live with them during the school year and go to school. But I must say, although it was nice to meet other kids my age and do all of that. I missed the ranch and miss my family. And it was I looked forward to every holiday in the summer when I could be back on the ranch. And that was a great way to grow up, I guess. And when I was in high school, I thought well, I better go to college. And I just applied to one school. And thankfully they took me I don’t know what I would have done if they turned me down. Once I went to Stanford. And while I was while I

Law review article, Speech

Professional Competence and Social Responsibility: Fulfilling the Vanderbilt Vision

Law review article, Speech / By

VANDERBILT LAW REVIEW

VOLUME 36 JANUARY 1983 NUMBER 1

Professional Competence and Social Responsibility: Fulfilling the Vanderbilt Vision*

Sandra Day O’Connor**

It is a great pleasure to visit Vanderbilt Law School and to dedicate the Alyne Queener Massey Library. The University is for tunate to have friends like the Masseys who, by their generous gift, carry on a proud and honorable tradition. That tradition began in 1873 when Commodore Vanderbilt provided Bishop McTyeire with the gift that resulted in the establishment of this splendid university.

Sir Walter Scott once said that “a lawyer without history or literature is a mechanic, a mere working mason; if he possesses some knowledge of these, he may venture to call himself an architect. If I may “build” on Sir Walter’s concept, I would add that before a lawyer is entitled to think of himself or herself as an “ar chitect,” two additional attributes-professional competence, and social responsibility are needed. While a background of history and literature is provided by the liberal education that American law schools typically encourage prior to the formal study of the law, it is the law school that bears the heavy responsibility of providing training to prospective lawyers in the areas of professional compe tence and the ethical practice of law.

On this occasion of dedicating the Alyne Massey library, Van-

* Copyright c by Sandra D. O’Connor. This speech was delivered at the dedication of the Alyne Queener Massey

Law review article

Judges Struck by Lightning: Some Observations on the Politics of Recent Supreme Court Appointments

Law review article / By

JUDGES STRUCK BY LIGHTNING: Some

Observations on the Politics of Recent Supreme Court Appointments

L.A. Powe, Jr.

Justice Sandra Day O’Connor observed that President Ronald Reagan’s nomination of her to the Supreme Court “was a great surprise to the nation but an even greater surprise to me.”1 Quite. She was not even a member of the Supreme Court Bar, had never seen a Supreme Court argument, and, although a judge (and previously a state legislator), was not even on her state’s supreme court.2 Obscure might be an understatement. Quoting her colleague Lewis Powell, a quintessential centrist on the Court, she agreed that “being appointed to the Court was a little like being struck by lightning in both the suddenness and the improbability of the event.”3

I.

We can guess what being struck by lightning means to the judge who has been hit. The more relevant inquiry is what, if any, meaning it has for the nation. To explore this inquiry, a very brief detour is necessary to discuss a political phenomenon that emerged around O’Connor’s nomination. Ever since Barry Goldwater’s attack on the Court during his 1964 presidential campaign as the branch “least faithful to the constitutional tradition of limited government, and to the principle of legitimacy in the exercise of power,” Republicans and Democrats have split on the Court.4 But throughout the 1970s, the parties also split on the meaning of the Constitution, a split very much apparent in 1980 and cemented four years later.5

Law review article

A Wise Justice, and a Great Boss

Law review article / By

A WISE JUSTICE, AND A GREAT Boss

Michelle T. Friedland*

“Thank you very much for coming,” Justice O’Connor said as I entered her chambers to interview for a clerkship. “I’m so sorry to have asked you to make the trip all the way out here from Stanford.”

Apparently Justice O’Connor didn’t realize that this was the most exciting moment of my life, one for which I would have gladly traveled anywhere. “But it is very important that I meet potential clerks in person, because each of my clerks becomes part ofmy family.” She then asked me as many questions about my family and hobbies as she did about my legal views.

I served as one of four clerks to Justice O’Connor during October Term, 2001, following my graduation from Stanford Law School and a year-long clerkship on the D.C. Circuit. I quickly learned that Justice O’Connor was serious about treating her clerks like family. She integrated us not only into the work of the Supreme Court but also into many other aspects of her rich life.

My days typically began at 7:40 A.M., when I met Justice O’Connor and her other female clerk in her chambers. Together we walked upstairs to the women’s locker room and changed into gym clothes for the exercise class the Justice hosted on the fourth-floor basketball court, often referred to as “the highest court in the land.” There, we joined about fifteen of her female friends for an hour of Pilates or aerobics. Many of Justice O’Connor’s friends wore T shirts with such slogans as “Exercise Defends

Law review article

William Rehnquist and Sandra Day O’Connor: An Expression of Appreciation

Law review article / By

TRIBUTES

WILLIAM REHNQUIST AND SANDRA DAY O’CONNOR: AN EXPRESSION OF APPRECIATION

Anthony M. Kennedy*

Thank you for the invitation to be here to honor Sandra O’Connor and the memory of the late William Rehnquist. We meet at Stanford, the place that did so much to shape their lives and careers. The years at Stanford gave them their skills as scholars and professionals. Those years, too, helped them find their self-definition, their sense of identity. At Stanford, they continued to shape their ethical frameworks and their beliefs that the individual can, and must, contribute to the progress of a free society. It is a privilege to discuss not just one but two great Justices, here at the University that means so much to Justice O’Connor and that Chief Justice Rehnquist ever admired.

The legal academy, the Bar, historians, and the American people will study their decisions and, in good time, assess their place in the history of the Court and the history of the law. It will be for later generations to find insights more penetrating, judgments more balanced than are possible for us; but it is appropriate for you to begin the dialogue.

My remarks are a brief introduction to your discussions and an expression of appreciation for your undertaking to study the work of my late former colleague and true friend, Chief Justice Rehnquist, and my dear friend, and still esteemed senior colleague, Justice O’Connor.

To begin, let me ask you to match this description to a famous Justice: On

Law review article

Problems with Minimalism

Law review article / By

PROBLEMS WITH MINIMALISM

Cass R. Sunstein*

Much of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s work on the Supreme Court embodies a commitment to judicial minimalism, understood as a preference for narrow rulings, closely attuned to particular facts. In many contexts, however, that commitment is hard to justify, simply because it imposes severe decisionmaking burdens on others and may well create more, rather than fewer, errors. For this reason, a general preference for minimalism is no more defensible than a general preference for rules. The choice between narrow and wide rulings cannot itself be made by rules or even presumptions; it requires a case-by-case inquiry. The argument is illustrated throughout this Article with reference to the problem of affirmative action, where Justice O’Connor’s preference for particularity resulted in the imposition of a constitutional mandate on admissions offices that is not simple to defend in principle. In some contexts, however, narrow rulings are indeed preferable, in large part because they give flexibility to politically accountable officials. Justice O’Connor’s minimalism is best understood as reflecting a belief that in difficult cases at the frontiers of constitutional law.judges would do best to avoid firm rules that they might come to regret.

INTRODUCTION 1900

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION, RULES, AND TRANSPARENCY 1903

RULES, STANDARDS, AND MINIMALISM 1907

Minimalism and Its Discontents 1908

The Case for Rules? 1910

In defense of rules 1910

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