Arizona Republic, Newspaper article, The Kauffman-Henry Collection

Nominee is expected to fulfill Reagan mandate for restraint

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

Arizona Appeals Court Judge Sandra Day O’Connor’s court opinions are short, clearly written and stress interpeting the law. That attracted President Reagan and led to her nomination Tuesday to the U.S. Supreme Court, according to her longtime friend and colleague, House Minority Leader Burton Barr, R-PhoeniL “She will judge, she will not legislate,” Barr said. “That’s what Reagan wants. He wants them (justices) to sit up on the bench and decide what the law says. She will do that.” Sources close to Reagan said he saw in Judge O’Connor another Justice William Rehnquist, 56, a fellow Arizonan and solid conservative appointed to the Supreme Court by President Nixon. Rehnquist and Judge O’Connor were classmates at Stanford University and were co-editors of the Stanford Law Review. In her months as a member of the Arizona Court of Appeals, an analysis of her opinions shows that Judge O’Connor has not been faced with controversial legal questions and has not written ihe kind of legal opinions that make history. Instead, she has dealt mainly with routine issues of workmen’s compensation and divorce. However, she has little patience with criminals’ claims that they were denied their rights. In the past 16 months, she has written the court’s opinions in decisions that refused to let a divorced woman share in her ex-husband’s workmen’s compensation payments; declined to create a new right to sue lawyers and witnesses for testimony that comes out at a trial; and opened up the city of Mesa

Newspaper article, Phoenix Gazette, The Kauffman-Henry Collection

O’Connor Heads Home; Confirmation Expected. ‘Support Very Encouraging’

Newspaper article, Phoenix Gazette, The Kauffman-Henry Collection / By

WASHINGTON – Supreme Court nominee Sandra D. O’Connor talked about abortion with staunch anti-abortion senators and ended up telling at l~ast one of them her views on the controversial subject are the same as President Reagan’s. The Arizona jurist met Friday with Sens. John East, R-N.C., and Gordon Humphrey, R-N.H., who asked her if published reports that her abortion views are the same as the president’s were true. ”She said, ‘Yes,”‘ Humphrey told reporters. REAGAN BAS said he considers abortion “murder.” As California governor he signed a law which permitted large numbers of abortions, but later said that was because abortion proponents found loopholes allowing abortions even when the woman’s life was not in danger. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., also got a visit from Judge O’Connor during her rounds with senators who will vote on her norniation, and said afterward: “I am convinced she will receive the confirmation – overwhelmingly, if not unanimously” and “‘she will make an outstanding justice.” Humphrey said when they talked about the Supreme Court’s landmarl. 1973 abortion decision, “She made it clear to me that the judiciary has a distinctly different role from the legislature and neither body should encroach” on the other. CALLING THE court’s abortion decision “the most flagrant example of judicial usurpation of power,” East said the 51-year-old jurist would “of course” be questioned about her abortion views during the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings.

Chandler Arizonan, Newspaper article, The Kauffman-Henry Collection

O’Connor gives views on teen-age abortions

Chandler Arizonan, Newspaper article, The Kauffman-Henry Collection / By

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

Editorial, Prescott Courier, The Kauffman-Henry Collection

O’Connor gives post her all

Editorial, Prescott Courier, The Kauffman-Henry Collection / By

EDITOR’S NOTE: Loyal Meek, editor of the Phoenix Gazette, recently visited Supreme Court Justice Sandra O’Connor at her office in Washington.

By LOYAL MEEK
The Phoenix Gazette

WASHINGTON Justice Sandra Day O’Connor sits on the tip of a marble iceberg.

“Are you enjoying it?” she is asked.

“That’s not the right word,” she
replies.

Nearly a year and a half after joining eight male colleagues on the Supreme Court of the United States, she says she finds the job interesting, challenging, demanding. The responsibilities, she indicates, are not the sort to be enjoyed.

Soon the interviewer finds himself answering more questions than he is asking as Madame Justice (“Please call me Sandra,” she said at our greeting) seeks information on what’s happening in Phoenix.

As the newest member of the high court, and more significantly, its first woman member, Justice O’Connor is under an especially penetrating scrutiny.

Those who observed her in action in the Arizona Legislature, the state superior and appeals courts and in such public arenas as Town Hall will not be surprised to hear that shoe is meeting the challenge with efficient aplomb.

If anything has dismayed her, it is probably how demanding the job is.

At the tip of the marble iceberg that is the nation’s court system from JPs on up, justice in America suffers from an overwhelming case load.

Some might suggest that the computer, with its fantastic word-processing, case-researching capabilities, may offer a means for the courts

Kingman Daily Miner, Newspaper article, The Kauffman-Henry Collection

O’Connor gets sweeping Senate OK

Kingman Daily Miner, Newspaper article, The Kauffman-Henry Collection / By

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

Los Angeles Times, Op ed, The Kauffman-Henry Collection

Now We’ll See Who’s Objective!

Los Angeles Times, Op ed, The Kauffman-Henry Collection / By

The elevation of a woman, Sandra Day O’Connor, to the U.S. Supreme Court for the first time has sparked renewed concern as to whether women judges can be objective on the bench, particularly in dealing with such highly emotional and female-oriented issues as abortion and rape. Even the chief justice of that high court is alleged to have expressed reservations in this regard. This erroneous and presumptuous apprehension is premised on sexually stereotypical thinking which historically has permeated so much of our male-dominated culture, including the legal and judicial professions. Women judges, like those of the male sex, have the intellect, education and experience to decide the thousands of civil and criminal cases that come before them on the facts and the applicable law. Indeed, being acutely aware of their high visibility, women are particularly sensitive to their judicial role. Women judges are thus less likely than entrenched and secure male judges to indulge biases in deciding cases. It is a startling revelation that over the decades so few among us have questioned the objectivity of white Anglo-Saxon male judges who have been presiding over us all, male and female, of every color and ethnic background. Two male law professors who had the temerity to address the subject in the N.Y.U. Law Review in 1971 found, as might be expected, that male judges bring to the bench a variety of prejudices stemming from their sexual, ideological, cultural, ethnic, religious, economic

Op ed, The Kauffman-Henry Collection, The Washington Post

O’Connor Friends: Justice Burger and Mary Crisp

Op ed, The Kauffman-Henry Collection, The Washington Post / By

Remember Mary Crisp? She is the outspoken Arizona woman who rocked Ronald Reagan’s boat at the Republican National Convention last year. She clashed with Reagan over the Equal Rights Amendment, and her insubordination cost her the cochairmanship of the Republican National Committee. Now anot~er Arizm)a woman is in the limelight. She is Sandra D. O’Connor, who has been nominated by President Reagan to the Supreme Colll’t. Mary Crisp and Sandra O’Connor have been friends for years. ‘f hey both worked for the Republican cause in the Phoenix area and their children attended the same schools. The two women have had long talks about political issues. And Mary Crisp thinks Reagan may be in for a surprise. She describes O’Connor as a moderate with a fiercely independent streak. Crisp also called her friend “a real civil libertarian.” As a judge, she demonstrated a devotion to detail. Sandra O’Connor has another surprising friend: Chief ,Justice Warren R Bur!!er. ‘I’he two became acquainted at judicial outing8. They got to know each other on a trip to England and a cruise on Lake Powell on the Utah-Arizona border. Burger has told associates that O’Connor has a fine judicial mind. But the chief justice is fretting over one problem: O’Connor will be the first woman in history to sit on the Supreme Court, and there’s no ladies’ room in the justices’ chambers. Walloping Watt ‘- Interior Secretary James G. Watt has aroused the wrath of many important environmental grot1ps. According to repqrts,

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

O’Connor finds little time for herself since selection

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

PHOENIX – Sandra Day O’Connor loves to cook, but the 51-year-old judge hasn’t had much time for that or other hobbies since President Reagan nominated her to the U.S. Supreme Court. “We’ve practically given up eating,” she said ruefully on Wednesday as she she tried to juggle work, picture-taking sessions and helping FBI agents who are checking her background. The sign on her door said: “Open – Come In,” and it seemed like everybody wanted to do just that. It wasn’t just flowers, calls and visitors, though. Secretaries and aides kept popping in from neighboring offices to offer new supplies of paper cups or gawk at the White House press aide shuffling newspaper clippings in a corner of the three-room office. “This is the wildest experience of my life,” O’Connor said as she greeted former colleagues from her days as I state Senate majority leader. I wasn’t able to get through on the telephone, so I came over,” explained Republican state Sen. Ray Rottas of Phoenix, one of those she greeted warmly. Flowers overflowed from her private office. Case folders and legal papers competed for space on every tabletop and filing cabinet with orchids, carnations and dozens of long-stemmed red and yellow roses, wrapped in American flag ribbons or displayed in vases. A jar of jelly beans stood in the center of O’Connor’s desk, minus about a fifth of the candies that were in it when it arrived from a well-wisher on Tuesday. Family pictures and an oriental print hung on the walls, and the judge’s

Mesa Tribune, Newspaper article, The Kauffman-Henry Collection

O’Connor fields queries easily

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

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 …