Presidents and the Law: Ronald Reagan and Sandra Day O'Connor
During the election campaign of 1980, Republican candidate Ronald Reagan made a pledge that he would appoint the first female Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Richard Nixon had tried to do so during his term, but he was unable to decide upon a nominee satisfactory to both himself and has party. This achievement was left to Ronald Reagan in 1991.
On July 7, 1981, Reagan announced that he would nominate Sandra Day O'Connor. then a Justice of the Arizona State Court of Appeals, as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, to replace the retiring Potter Stewart. O'Connor received word of her nomination from President Reagan on the day prior to the announcement. She did not know that she was a finalist for the position. Reagan formally nominated O'Connor on August 19, 1981.
Pro-life and religious groups opposed O'Connor's nomination because they believed that she would not be willing to overturn Roe v Wade. A number of conservative Republican Senators, including Don Nickles of Oklahoma, Steve Symms of Idaho, and Jesse Helms of North Carolina, called the White House to express their discontent over the nomination. Nickles tole Reagan that he and "other profamily Republican senators" would not support O'Connor's nomination.
O'Connor was very professional and very cool and refused to state her views on abortion. In her interview with the President, she told Reagan she did not remember whether she had supported the view of repealing Arizona's law banning abortion. When she was an Arizona State Senator in 1970, she had voted in favor of a bill to repeal the state's criminal-abortion statute. In 1974, she opposed a measure to prohibit abortions in some Arizona hospitals.
Reagan's diary entry on July 6, 1981 reads as follows:
"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 by a vote of 99–0. Senator Max Baucus of Montana was absent for the decision, and he sent O'Connor a copy of the book "A River Runs Through It" with an apology for missing the vote.
In her first year on the Court she received over 60,000 letters from the public, more than any other justice in history. In a number of speeches which she later gave, she mentioned feeling some relief from the media clamor when Ruth Bader Ginsburg joined her as an Associate Justice of the Court in 1993.
Following is a YouTube video of President Reagan announcing the nomination of Justice O'Connor:
On July 7, 1981, Reagan announced that he would nominate Sandra Day O'Connor. then a Justice of the Arizona State Court of Appeals, as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, to replace the retiring Potter Stewart. O'Connor received word of her nomination from President Reagan on the day prior to the announcement. She did not know that she was a finalist for the position. Reagan formally nominated O'Connor on August 19, 1981.
Pro-life and religious groups opposed O'Connor's nomination because they believed that she would not be willing to overturn Roe v Wade. A number of conservative Republican Senators, including Don Nickles of Oklahoma, Steve Symms of Idaho, and Jesse Helms of North Carolina, called the White House to express their discontent over the nomination. Nickles tole Reagan that he and "other profamily Republican senators" would not support O'Connor's nomination.
O'Connor was very professional and very cool and refused to state her views on abortion. In her interview with the President, she told Reagan she did not remember whether she had supported the view of repealing Arizona's law banning abortion. When she was an Arizona State Senator in 1970, she had voted in favor of a bill to repeal the state's criminal-abortion statute. In 1974, she opposed a measure to prohibit abortions in some Arizona hospitals.
Reagan's diary entry on July 6, 1981 reads as follows:
"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 by a vote of 99–0. Senator Max Baucus of Montana was absent for the decision, and he sent O'Connor a copy of the book "A River Runs Through It" with an apology for missing the vote.
In her first year on the Court she received over 60,000 letters from the public, more than any other justice in history. In a number of speeches which she later gave, she mentioned feeling some relief from the media clamor when Ruth Bader Ginsburg joined her as an Associate Justice of the Court in 1993.
Following is a YouTube video of President Reagan announcing the nomination of Justice O'Connor: