Reagan Appoints O'Connor
On July 7, 1981 (31 years ago today) President Ronald Reagan nominated Sandra Day O'Connor as the first female justice of the United States Supreme Court. She would serve on the court for almost twenty-five years before retiring on January 31, 2006.
Reagan had pledged during his 1980 presidential campaign that he would appoint the first woman to the Court. He nominated O'Connor to replace the retiring Potter Stewart. (Stewart was famous for his quote on obscenity "I can't define it, but I know it when I see it.")
Pro-life and religious groups opposed O'Connor's nomination because they suspected she would not be willing to overturn Roe v Wade. Senate Republicans such as Don Nickles of Oklahoma, Steve Symms of Idaho, and Jesse Helms of North Carolina called the White House to try and talk Reagan out of nominating O'Connor. Nickles told Reagan that he and "other profamily Republican senators would not support" O'Connor.
O'Connor refused to telegraph her views on abortion, and she was careful not to leave the impression that she supported abortion rights. O'Connor told Reagan she did not remember whether she had voted to repeal Arizona's law banning abortion. However, she had cast a preliminary vote as a member of the Arizona State Senate in 1970 in favor of a bill to repeal the state's criminal-abortion statute. In 1974, O'Connor had voted against a measure to prohibit abortions in some Arizona hospitals.
Reagan wrote the following entry in his diary on July 6, 1981:
"Called Judge O'Connor and told her she was my nominee for supreme court. Already the flak is starting and from my own supporters. Right to Life people say she is pro abortion. She says abortion is personally repugnant to her. I think she'll make a good justice."
On September 21, O'Connor was confirmed by the U.S. Senate with a vote of 99–0. In her first year on the Court she received over 60,000 letters from the public, more than any other justice in history.
One Republican on O'Connor's side was the senior senator from her home state, one Barry Goldwater. When asked at a press conference about his support for O'Connor, he promised to give the opponents of O'Connor "a good fight" adding that abortion was not a Conservative issue.
Following is an excerpt from a documentary on Goldwater entitled "Mr. Conservative." The section of the video from the 1:57 mark forward has some interesting footage of O'Connor's appointment and Goldwater's support for it, including the quote at the above referenced press conference. It's quite amusing:
Reagan had pledged during his 1980 presidential campaign that he would appoint the first woman to the Court. He nominated O'Connor to replace the retiring Potter Stewart. (Stewart was famous for his quote on obscenity "I can't define it, but I know it when I see it.")
Pro-life and religious groups opposed O'Connor's nomination because they suspected she would not be willing to overturn Roe v Wade. Senate Republicans such as Don Nickles of Oklahoma, Steve Symms of Idaho, and Jesse Helms of North Carolina called the White House to try and talk Reagan out of nominating O'Connor. Nickles told Reagan that he and "other profamily Republican senators would not support" O'Connor.
O'Connor refused to telegraph her views on abortion, and she was careful not to leave the impression that she supported abortion rights. O'Connor told Reagan she did not remember whether she had voted to repeal Arizona's law banning abortion. However, she had cast a preliminary vote as a member of the Arizona State Senate in 1970 in favor of a bill to repeal the state's criminal-abortion statute. In 1974, O'Connor had voted against a measure to prohibit abortions in some Arizona hospitals.
Reagan wrote the following entry in his diary on July 6, 1981:
"Called Judge O'Connor and told her she was my nominee for supreme court. Already the flak is starting and from my own supporters. Right to Life people say she is pro abortion. She says abortion is personally repugnant to her. I think she'll make a good justice."
On September 21, O'Connor was confirmed by the U.S. Senate with a vote of 99–0. In her first year on the Court she received over 60,000 letters from the public, more than any other justice in history.
One Republican on O'Connor's side was the senior senator from her home state, one Barry Goldwater. When asked at a press conference about his support for O'Connor, he promised to give the opponents of O'Connor "a good fight" adding that abortion was not a Conservative issue.
Following is an excerpt from a documentary on Goldwater entitled "Mr. Conservative." The section of the video from the 1:57 mark forward has some interesting footage of O'Connor's appointment and Goldwater's support for it, including the quote at the above referenced press conference. It's quite amusing: