Supreme Court Justices from Georgia

Supreme Court Justices from Georgia

BY SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR*

The newspaper headlines tell you often enough how the Supreme Court, like the other branches of the national government, reaches out to shape the lives of individual Americans. What is often overlooked, however, is how individual Americans shape the Court. It is not a surprise that Georgians have had a long and rich participation in the Court's business.

When I became the 102nd Supreme Court Justice, many people remarked that my appointment was a break from tradition, an unusual appointment, something out of the ordinary. I think I have finally discovered what all the excitement was about. My appointment was out of the ordinary, I now understand, primarily because I was neither born in, nor ap pointed from, the state of Georgia. Consider these imposing figures. Six Justices of the Supreme Court have been Georgians, either by birth or adoption. The first was James M. Wayne, appointed by President Andrew Jackson in 1835. The most recent, of course, is Clarence Thomas, appointed by President Bush just this year. In between came Justices John Archibald. Campbell, William B. Woods, Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar, and Joseph Rucker Lamar. There have, in fact, been Georgians on the Court for 57 of the 202 years that there has been a Supreme Court. No wonder my appointment from Arizona only the second from that state caused a bit of a stir.

To trace the tracks of Georgians who have served on the Supreme Court is to trace