First Woman Justice Tops Local News
Arizona’s No. 1 news story for 1981, as voted by the staff of The Phoenix Gazette, was a happy, precedentsetting event that also ranks among the top nationwide. . The news was the appointment of San4ra Day O’Connor of Arizona – a judge, politician, lawyer, wife, mother r. the first woman to sit as a justice Qt the United States Supreme Court. P-.esident Reagan announced her ppdintment July 7, and from then fnti after Justice O’Connor began t sking questions from the bench of _he nation’s highest court, the Arizoilan continued to be front page news. ‘ Justice O’Connor was serving on fhe Arizona Court of Appeals at the time of her nomination. She prefiously was a Maricopa County Superior Court judge. : The remaining nine 1981 stories on ‘fheGazette list, are the: ‘ • Shelving of the proposed Orme barn at the confluence of the Salt and Terde rivers in favor of a Waddell Dam on the Agua Fria. • Beginning of the Arizona Lottery, Its unprecedented success – and its J>ro~lems. 1 • Death of Bishop James Rausch of the Catholic Diocese of Phoenix and the appointment of Bishop Tom O’Brien as his successor. • . • Passage of a $5.8-billion transportation package – including an 8 percent gas tax based on the average retail price per gallon – and the initiative effort that will give voters a chance to turn down that increase. • Redistricting of the five congressional and 30 legislative districts to l;onform with one-man, one-vote manpates based on the 1980 census. : • Natural gas explosions,
First Woman joins Supreme Court
WASHINGTON (AP) – In a six-minute ceremony, Sandra Day O’Connor broke through two centuries of male exclusivity and donned her robe Friday as an associate justice of the Supreme Court. With President Reagan, her family and 500 other guests looking on, Mrs. O’Connor stood beside Chief Justice Warren E. Burger and promised to “support and defend the Constitution” and faithfully carry out her duties. “On behalf of all the members of the court and retired Justice Potter Stewart, it is a pleasure to extend to you a very warm welcome to the court and to wish you a very long life and a long and happy career in our common calling,” Burger said in welcoming the court’s newest member and its first woman. Mrs. O’Connor, who will be ad dressed by her brethren as “Justice O’Connor” – no courtesy title – was preceded by 101 men, dating to the court’s founding in 1790. The ceremony got under way late, at 2:12 p.m., and was over six minutes later. Sitting across from Justice O’Connor in the front of the courtroom were President and Nancy Reagan; her husband, Phoenix lawyer John J. O’Connor III; and sons Scott, 23, Brian, 21, and Jay, 20. There, too, were her parents, Harry and Ada Mae Day. Next to the president was retired Justice Stewart, whose retirement last July 3 opened the way for Reagan to keep his campaign promise to nominate the first woman to the high court. She had earlier told news reporters that she felt “just great” about taking her place in history. The ceremony began as Mrs.
Chicago Tribune, Newspaper article, The Kauffman-Henry Collection
First woman is named to U.S. Supreme Court: Praised as Politician and Judge
SINCE her graduation from law school at the age of 22. Sandra Day O’Connor, nominated Tuesday to the U.S. Supreme Court, has made her mark both as a judge and as a Republican. politician in Arizona. Mrs. O’Connor, 51, is a judge on the Arizona Court of Appeals. She was born in 1930, in El Paso, Tex., but she grew up on a cattle ranch in southern Arizona and claims that as her native state. She received a bachelor’s degree in economics with “great distinction” from Stanford University in 1950. She earned her law degree two y.ears later, also from Stanford and also with honors. She ranked third in her law class; the person who ranked No. 1 was fellow Westerner William Rehnquist, who has been on the Supreme Court since 19’62. Another classmate was Frank X. Gordon, now an Arizona Supreme Court justice. “SHE’S EXCEPTIONALLY well qualified, with a tremendous background in politics,1′ Gordon said after learning of her nomination. She was married to a classmate, John O’Connor, and remained in California while he finished law school. She worked for a time as an assistant district attorney in San Mateo County. She joined the Arizona bar in 1957, practiced briefly in Maryvale, Ariz., and was an assistant attorney general from 1965 to 1969. In 1969, she was appointed to the state senate and subsequently was elected to two terms as a Republican. She was elected majority leader, the first woman to win such a powerful state position. She received 75 per cent of the vote, more than any other
El Paso Herald-Post, Newspaper article, The Kauffman-Henry Collection
Father beams, mother cries at daughter’s nomination
By PETER BROCK Herald-Post Staff Writer Copyright 1981 El Paso Herald-Post
RAILROAD DRAW, GREENLEE COUNTY, Ariz. – The quiet Lazy B ranchhouse suddenly erupted early today with a flurry of congratulatory phone calls to Harry and Ada Mae Day, who were trying to watch President Ronald Reagan nominate their daughter, Sandra Day O’Connor, as the 102nd Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Day, a retired 83-year-old rancher and Greenlee County native, beamed while watching Reagan call his daughter “a person for all seasons.”
“SHE SURE LOOKS LIKE HER father doesn’t she,” Day laughed proudly while watching television pictures of his daughter. “That’d be a shame if the Senate didn’t confirm her, wouldn’t it?” he joked with his wife, who dabbed tears from her eyes.
Day and his wife became slightly irritable as White House reporters badgered Attorney General William French Smith about Judge O’Connor’s position on abortion. “I basically know what it is,” he said, and then refused to explain his daughter’s abortion philosophy. “She’s so conscientious, though, she won’t even give me a legal opinion any more. As a judge, she can’t. So she refers me to her husband.”
“SHE’S A VERY THOUGHTFUL person. I’ve never known anyone who didn’t like her. She is a dear person, and she isn’t the type who would try to high-hat anybody,” said her mother. “She’s excelled in everything she’s done.”
“I don’t suppose it would be any use to try to call her now,” said Day, who added Judge O’Connor
Arizona Republic, Newspaper article, The Kauffman-Henry Collection
Falwell group denies softening on justice nomination
WASHINGTON – Moral Majority, the con- :lervative lobbying group, said Wednesday it bas :Jiot softened its position on Judge Sandra -O’Connor and that it still has “substantive ..concerns” about her nomination to the Supreme o.urt. : Cal Thomas, vice president of the organi7.lltion, ~ed a statement reasserting Moral Majority’s ppsition after reports that it was falling into line behind President Reagan’s selection of Judge Pi’Connor for the high court. r, ~eanwbile, two religious journals criticized P..resident Reagan for conferring with Moral Majority leader Jerry Falwell about the nominatio~. t Falwell, of Lynchburg, Va., has said Reagan 1elephoned him and talked for almost an hour on the day Judge O’Connor was announced as ~an’s choice. The fundamentalist preacher has • ked the president to let him question Judge O’Connor about her views on feminism and ~rtion . ~Y such concessions on Reagan’s part would be ~ e height of irresponsibility,” said Spurgeon Dunnam III, editor of the Dallas-based Tezas Methodist-United Methodist Reporter, a national publication serving the 9.6 million-member United Methodist Church and churches of other denominations. “I’m bothered, personally, by the type of religious folks Mr. Reagan tends to liaten to,” Dunnam wrote in this week’s edition. “Mr. Falwell epitomw.es a very narrow, legalistic and not always Christian. from my understanding of the Scriptures, point of view.” Dr. Presnall Wood, editor of the Baptist Standard, the Dallas-based voice
Arizona Republic, Newspaper article, The Kauffman-Henry Collection
Falwell endorses Judge O’Connor
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – Moral Majority leader Jerry Falwell said Thursday night he thinks Judge Sandra O’Connor will make a good addition to the U.S. Supreme Court. “I may grow to rue these words, but (from) what I heard in the (Senate) hearings and what my friends op the panel said, I think she is going to make a good justice,” Falwell said. The controversial religious-political leader was in southern Florida to deliver a speech to a meeting of the Baptist Bible Fellowship International. Asked to comment on Sen. Barry Goldwater’s attack on him in a recent speech, Falwell said the Arizona Republican’s problem is that “he’s getting older” and “no longer is the leading conservative in the United States.” “When he (Goldwater) says that religion has no part of public policy, he’s contradicting statements made by Thomas Jefferson,” Falwell added. “He is reacting adversely to someone else taking away where the mantle used to be. I think instead of kicking his constituents in the posterior, he should be writing his memoirs.” After his Hollywood appearance, Falwell planned to fly to Freeport, Bahamas, where the Moral Majority is meeting to map a nationwide anti-pornography campaign.
Arizona Republic, Letter to the editor, The Kauffman-Henry Collection
Falwell and O’Connor
Editor:
I could not help but think of Arizona’s Sandra O’Connor and how she must have felt, honored by the president of the United States, a Rose Garden reception, and a White House luncheon. This great and most deserved honor, could only be topped by the endorsement of the great Jerry Falwell. Personally, I would rather be bitten by a Cobra. MEL WILLIAMS Mesa
Arizona Republic, Newspaper mention, The Kauffman-Henry Collection
Ex-Justice applauds nomination
DUMMERSTON, Vt. – Retired Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart said Tuesday that he was “delighted” with President Reagan’s nomination of Arizona Appeals Court Judge Sandra O’Connor to succeed him. “She is not only good, she is very, very good,” said Stewart, who officially stepped down Friday after nearly 23 years as a justice. Stewart, traveling through Vermont on his way to his vacation home near Franconia, N.H., said he heard of the appointment on his car radio. Upon arriving at his daughter’s home in Dummerston, Stewart said, he got a call from the White House and “I told the President I was pleased with his choice.” Reagan had tried to reach Stewart before the official announcement was made, said Elliot Gerson, one of Stewart’s law clerks. The White House switchboard placed calls to the Connecticut house where Stewart spent Monday night, to his daughter’s house and to his son’s law office in Brattleboro. Stewart called Mrs. O’Connor “a very well qualified person, a fme choice,” and said he is not surprised that a woman had been chosen to succeed him.
Newspaper article, Wall Street Journal
Even Cowgirls Get Their Due
Fort Worth, Texas — YOU COULD ALMOST HEAR the “Huh?”s reverberating from behind newspapers nationwide at the news that Sandra Day O’Connor was inducted Friday into the Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame. But it’s true.
The 72-year-old Supreme Court justice attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the museum’s fantastic new $21 million facility. In her acceptance speech, she reminisced about her childhood on an Arizona ranch — wanting to be a cattle rancher, riding on roundups and working. Indeed, she pointed out, ranch work was her first experience with all-male colleagues. In the end, she became “the first cowgirl to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court . . . riding herd on lower-court judges.” But at heart, she concluded, “I will always be a cowgirl.”
Justice O’Connor joins 157 others who’ve been inducted since the museum’s humble beginnings, in 1975, in Hereford, Texas. The 33,000-square-foot museum, designed by David M. Schwarz, was the result of some fancy fund raising by a small group of Fort Worth residents, including members of the Bass family.
The two-story, sand-colored brick structure could not be more perfectly situated, straddling as it does Cowtown’s mutually exclusive worlds of livestock and high culture. On one side stand the livestock exhibition halls; on the other, the Kimbell and Amon Carter museums.
By any measure, the women whose names are etched in glass around the colonnaded rotunda seem an incongruous lot. The better known ones range from the predictable