Newspaper article, Phoenix Gazette, The Kauffman-Henry Collection

Judge Visits Capital: Red Carpet Rolled Out for O’Connor

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

WASHING TON – The nation’s capital is giving Arizona Court of Appeals Judge Sandra D. O’Connor red carpet treatment usually reserved for visiting dignitaries. What was supposed to be a routine round of meetings to smooth her confirmation process as a Supreme Court justice turned into a roadshow of phot.ographers, reporters, government employees and tourists trying to get a glimpse of the Phoenix woman. Wearing a lavender suit and smiling broadly, Judge O’Connor seemed t.o be enjoying the attention. MOST OF Judge O’Connor’s morning was spent in conference with Attorney General William French Smith and his assistants. Judge O’Connor and Smith met privately for an hour. Afterwards, the att.omey general told reporters there no problems are likely when the Senate considers her confirmation. , Smith speculated her confirmation vote may be unanimous. Judge O’Connor waa applauded by bystanders when she entered and left the Justice Department. AMONG THOSE at the morning meeting was Robert O’Connell, a former Phoenix attorney who now is assistant attorney general for legislative affairs. He and Judge O’Connor are longtime friends. Also at the session with Smith were White House lawyer Fred Fielding and Powell Moore, Reagan’s legislative assistant for Senate affairs. At the White House, some critics representing a group called March for Life demonstrated outside. PROTESTERS carried signs saying, “O’Connor – a person for all liberals,” “Va. says no to ‘0,’” and, “Mr. President, your staff

Newspaper article, Phoenix Gazette, The Kauffman-Henry Collection

Judge’s Record Impresses Goldwater

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

Gazette Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON – A review of the 29 published opinions of Arizona Court of Appeals Judge Sandra O’Connor , Supreme Court justice-designate, attests to her “exceptionally high professional qualifications,” Sen. Barry M. Goldwater, R-Ariz., said. Goldwater last week told the Senate he and his staff have studied the opinions the judge prepared, and said: “It is quite clear from reading her decisions that she is unusually thorough, reasoned, detailed and logical in her decision making. She takes careful account of all sides of an issue and always makes a pains – taking analysis of the case.”

GOLDWATER said that in his opinion, Judge O’Connor is “a strict constructionist both of case law and statutory interpretation.” “Throughout all her opinions, Judge O’Connor is fair,” the statement continued.” In a high number of cases, she ruled with little people fighting against big institutions, such as cases involving small citizens defending themselves against large corporations or governmental agencies.”

Goldwater said that in the furor over President Reagan’s appointment of Judge O’Connor to the Supreme Court her legal abilities have been overlooked. For the record, he cited some of her opinions. “TO BEGIN, I will call attention to the case of Fernandez v. United Acceptance Corp. Here Judge O’Connor made a finding that a citizen’s freedom of privacy had been invaded by the undue harassment of a creditor in attempting to collect a debt,” Goldwater

Arizona Republic, Newspaper article, The Kauffman-Henry Collection

Judge relied on legal talents to vault into politics, national spotlight

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

Early years I I 1 Judge O’Connor was born March 26, 1930, at the El Paso, Texas, home of her maternal grandmother, Ada Mae Wilkey. She was the Bride and barrister first of three children in the pioneer Arizona I ranching family of Harry A. and Ada Mae Wilkey Day. 1 An old newspaper account says the Day 1 family’s 162,000-acre Lazy-B Ranch was “the first in southeastern Arizona.” She went to school in El Paso, where she 1 lived with her grandmother, because there were no suitable schools near the ranch. She attended the Radford School for girls and graduated from Austin High School, which she attended for her senior year. ‘ She has a sister, Ann, now 43 and married to former state Sen. Scott Alexander, and a brother, Alan, 41, who manages the ranch. ‘ Matriculation to marriage • : After high school, she enrolled at Stanford : University, majoring in economics and grad1 uated “with great distinction.” Admitted to Stanford Law School, she had a distinguished classmate in Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist. An early report that they graduated third and first, respectively, has been discounted. But Judge O’Connor does have substantial academic credentials. She was a member of the Order of the Coif – a national honor society restricted to law students in the top 10 percent of their classes. It was at Stanford that she met her husband, John J. O’Connor III, another law student and Stanford Law Review staffer. “We were assigned to work together _ (editing a Review article) one

Mesa Tribune, Op ed, The Kauffman-Henry Collection

Hearings yield ‘sense of history’

Mesa Tribune, Op ed, The Kauffman-Henry Collection / By

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

Newspaper article, The Kauffman-Henry Collection, The New York Times

Judge O’Connor wins praise at hearing

Newspaper article, The Kauffman-Henry Collection, The New York Times / By

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

Los Angeles Times, Newspaper article, The Kauffman-Henry Collection

Judge O’Connor Viewed as Tough, Fair, Flexible

Los Angeles Times, Newspaper article, The Kauffman-Henry Collection / By

PHOENIX-Judge Sandra Day O’Connor smiled as a gaggle of repo rier s and photographers swarmed into her book-lined chambers at the Arizona Court of Appeals. It was a photo session arranged by a White House aide the day after President Reagan announced her selection as the first woman justice of the Supreme Court. The journalists were told in advance that she would answer no questions, but the questions came anyway. Was that jar of jellybeans on her desk a gift from the jellybean-loving President? No, she said with a smile, it came from “a close friend.” What about the complaints of ultraconservative groups about her record on abortion? She declined to answer and, although she still was smiling, her expression seemed to stiffen. The 51-year-oldjudge had gotten a brief taste of the sometimes painful process that traditionally follows the nomination of a Supreme Court Justice. Already, her views on legal and social issues, her judicial and legislative background, her personal life and personal finances are being subjected to intense scrutiny-by the FBI, the American Bar Assn., journalists and special-interest groups. It is a process that will continue through Senate confirmation hearings later this summer, but a tentative portrait of O’Connor can be drawn after several days of inquiries in this sunbaked desert metropolis . Those inquiries found that O’Connor is: -A jurist who in the last six years on the. state bench has handed out harsh sentences but l!_as also protected criminal

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

Judge O’Connor – Skilled in the High Art of Not Giving Offense

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

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