Editorial, Scottsdale Daily Progress, The Kauffman-Henry Collection

O’Connor passes test

Editorial, Scottsdale Daily Progress, The Kauffman-Henry Collection / By

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.

Honolulu Advertiser, Op ed, The Kauffman-Henry Collection

O’Connor on the bench: Time to prove, prove, prove

Honolulu Advertiser, Op ed, The Kauffman-Henry Collection / By

BOSTON – Last Friday, Sandra O’Connor joined The Brethren. And an elite sisterhood . Last Friday, Sandra O’Connor became the 102nd Supreme Court Justice . And the rirst woman Justice. As all the speeches about barrier-breaking, history-making, inner-circle-integrating end. she is settling down to two of the hardest roles in the cowitry: Supreme Court Justice and First Woman. IN SOME WAYS, this woman who won her robe with the unanimous consent of thf – ate and the goodwill of the people, wi1 ” approval of conservatives and the best wishe:. of the women’s rights activists, faces the issues shared by any woman who has ever been the first, the exception, the only, the other . How do you deal with the extra burdens? How do you live with the attention and the expectations? With the demands of conscience and history? O’Connor wants to be remembered as a good Justice, but she will be judged, in large part, as a Woman Justice . Her opinions will be scrutinized for signs of her sex; her behavior will be analyzed for clues of her kind . Like every other first woman , she will be visible and vulnerable, the one Justice in the photograph whom everyone can name . She will be criticized if she doesn’t ” think like a male Justice” and criticized if she does . Someone will surely want her to prove that a woman on the bench makes a difference, and someone else will want her to prove that women on the bench are no different It is, as Margaret Hennig, dean of the Graduate School of Business Management

Arizona Republic, Newspaper article, The Kauffman-Henry Collection

O’Connor OK Likely, poll shows

Arizona Republic, Newspaper article, The Kauffman-Henry Collection / By

public Wire Services WASHING TON – Barring major negative disclosures in the background of Sandra O’Connor, the Arizona judge appears headed for easy Senate confirmation as the first female Supreme Court justice, according to an Associated Press survey. Four days after her nomination was announced by President Reagan, 33 senators are committed to voting for Judge O’Connor, and an additional 20 are leaning toward supporting her when the nomination is considered, probably in September. Arizona’s senators, Republican Barry Goldwater and Democrat Dennis DeConcini, both support the nomination. The survey found no votes opposing her nomination. Forty-seven senators indicated that are undecided, saying they do not know enough about Judge O’Connor’s legal experience or constitutional views from initial reports about her career as a judge and state legislator. A majority vote of the 100-memher Senate is required for confirmation. Meanwhile, a White House spokesman said Friday that Reagan is aware of conservative opposition to Judge O’Connor and is “fully satisfied” with her views and record. In the face of rising opposition from abortion opponents to the appointment, David Gergen, White House communications director, said Reagan “had reassured himself again” of her views in a fmal telephone conversation before he offered her the post. Reagan interviewed Judge O’Connor in the Oval Office on July 1 and offered her the judicial post of retiring Justice Potter Stewart in a July 6 telephone

Mesa Tribune, Newspaper article, The Kauffman-Henry Collection

O’Connor OK expected

Mesa Tribune, Newspaper article, The Kauffman-Henry Collection / By

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

Newspaper article, San Francisco Examiner, The Kauffman-Henry Collection

O’Connor offers defense for her abortion stands

Newspaper article, San Francisco Examiner, The Kauffman-Henry Collection / By

What first woman candidate might face Page AS WASHINGTO! 1t;PII – Sandra O’Connor, the Arizona ;tate appeals court judge President Rea~an has_ nominated to become the first woman Supreme Court Justice, today reiterated her opposition to abortion and tried to justify for conservative senators her past legislative votes that have drawn strong opposition. . While anti-abortion pickets demonstrated outside the Senate Office Buildmg. O’Connor made a histOric appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee that will pass on her qualifications and faced criticism that her votes a member of the Arizona Senate showed ~he favored abortion . -My own viev. m 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 m my view fo~ legis!ativ;, action subject to any constitutional restrarnts or limitations. Answering tho? questions of committee chairman Strom Thurmond. R.S.C., O’Connor said she opposed urgrng Congress to launch an anti-abortion constitutional amend ment in 1974 because she thought the subject needed more thoughtful consideration. , She. testified that she opposed another anti-abortion bill I . as the Arizona Senate majority leader because, in her vi~w, it had been inappropriately attached as a rider to an entll’ely ‘ different bill by the Arizona House. O’Connor said she supported a 1973 bill to widen public knowledge of contraceptive practices. But she added that as a Supreme Court justice

Newspaper article, The Kauffman-Henry Collection, Yuma Daily Sun

O’Connor Nominee personally opposes abortion

Newspaper article, The Kauffman-Henry Collection, Yuma Daily Sun / By

WASHINGTON (AP) – Sandra D. O’Connor today expressed again her personal opposition to abortion, but made it clear that as a Supreme Court justice she would not be bound by personal biases, s•aid Sen. Gordon J. Humphrey. Humphrey, an abortion foe, met with the 51-year-old Arizona appeals court judge this morning on her fourth day of courting senators who will vote on her nomination to serve on the nation’s highest court. “She said the press reports were true. Her views are essentially the same as the president’s,” said the New Hampshire Republican, explaining that the reference was to “personal opposition” to abortion. Humphrey said Mrs. O’Connor followed up by saying, in effect, that Supreme Court justices “should divorce their decisions from personal biases.” Mrs. O’Connor told several senators Tuesday that she opposes abortion, but has since made it clear that she believes justices should follow legal precedents. Humphrey said he would ask constitutional scholars for help in drafting a set of questions on the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortions during the first six months of pregnancy. Humphrey said he hoped to deliver the written questions to Mrs. O’Connor before the Senate Judiciary Committee takes up her nomination. He added that Mrs. O’Connor did not comment on the 1973 decision during their meeting today. “I’m st ill neutral,” Humphrey said when asked whether he would vote for her . Sen. Jesse Helms, saying his single meeting with Mrs. O’Connor wasn’t

Newspaper article, Scottsdale Daily Progress, The Kauffman-Henry Collection

O’Connor nomination receives high marks

Newspaper article, Scottsdale Daily Progress, The Kauffman-Henry Collection / By

Newspapers around the country have given President Reagan high marks in their editorial pages for his nomination of Sandra Day O’Connor of Paradise Valley to the Supreme Court. Here is a sample of the editorial reaction: . “Give the President credit for honoring his own campaign promise . . . The right-to-life movement and other extremists are already giving him – and Justice-designate O’Connor – the backhanded honor of opposing the nomination because she showed moderation on some social issues . . . Her total record, we suspect, will show a lawyer, public servant and state court judge of the even temperament and open mind that the nation’s highest court deserves. ” THE NEW YORK TIMES “President Reagan has shown great courage and a sense of balance . . . The president has made a wise choice in Sandra O’Connor.” FORT LAUDERDALE (FLA.) NEWS “It is precisely (Judge O’Connor’s ) failure to conform to any absolutist standard on a single issue of social policy that helps make her appointment all the more a mature one.” WS ANGELES HERALD EXAMINER “Mrs. O’Connor’s political beliefs are probably more conservative than we would like; after all, she ls a Republican. But indications are that she is truly a ‘class’ person who can handle the challenge.” ATLANTA CONSTITUTION “Tradition and public attitudes kept qualified women off the Supreme Court in the past . .. The nomination of Judge O’Connor is an important and longoverdue step in the movement to admit qualified women to top positions