“A Good Judge”

Abstract

“A Good Judge” CRAIG JOYCE* Senator BAUCUS: How do you want to be remembered in history? Judge O’CONNOR: The tombstone question—what do I want on the tombstone? [Laughter.] Senator BAUCUS: Hopefully it will be written in places other than on a tombstone. Judge O’CONNOR: I hope it might say, “Here lies a good judge.” —Justice O’Connor’s Confirmation Hearing (1981)1 Sandra Day O’Connor will get her wish. For almost a quarter of a century, on an enor­ mous range of issues—from affirmative ac­ tion, to gender equality and opportunity, to reproductive freedom, to lawyer professional­ ism, to the powers of government in time of war, to the place ofreligion in a pluralistic soci­ ety, to the very structure ofour federalism, and more—when an anxious Nation awaited the Supreme Court’s latest pronouncement, what it most often got was a commonsense opinion from the most reasonable voice in American law.2 As the Justice herself, however, would be the first to observe, there are places other than Washington, D.C., and spheres ofactivity other than service on the Nation’s Court, where goodjudgment comes in handy on thejourney through life. * * * The future Justice can take no credit, of course, for her good fortune in being born into the family of Harry (“DA”) and Ada Mae Wilkey (“MO”) Day,3 or forthe good company over the years ofher sister Ann (who gave her parents theirnicknames when she was learning to spell and always has spoken of her sister as a role model) and her brother Alan (who took time from his own busy life to write, with the Justice, the loving memoir, Lazy B, that bears the ranch’s name).4 The rest of her life, however, has been full of good decisions of her own making, as the footnotes to this tribute attest. There were educational choices, like the decision of a homesick cowgirl who had spent her early school years away from the Lazy B except for “A GOOD JUDGE” 101 Although Sandra Day O’Connor’s appointment in 1981 as the first female Justice was a landmark in Supreme Court history, she asked in her confirmation hearings only to be remembered as a good judge. summers and holidays, but who, after cajoling her parents into allowing her to spend eighth grade nearer the ranch, reluctantly decided to return to the better education offered in the dis­ tant metropolis ofEl Paso. There were the deci­ sions to go to college at Stanford, to take early admission there at the law school when few other women were so inclined, and to marry John O’Connor.5 After law school, having failed fa­ mously—at least in the light of history—to secure a firstjob in private practice,6 she took a non-paying position as a county government attorney, hoping eventually to move up. She did.7 Following a briefstint as a federal govern­ ment lawyer in post-World War II Germany due to her husband’s assignment there by the U.S. military, she and John settled back in Arizona, where she furtherrounded her profes­ sional experience, this time in private practice in a two-person partnership.8 She stopped work for five years to raise small children, taking on volunteer work and political activities, thinking that otherwise she might never get anotherjob as a lawyer.9 She need not have worried.10 In due course, she returned to the work world full­ time, making a deliberate tour of all three branches of state government. First, there was service in the Attorney General’s office.11 Next came the state senate, where, after an initial appointment to an unexpired term,12 she was twice elected by her fellow citizens to serve in her own right and, in only her second full term, by her fellow legislators to become the majority leader.13 After that, having seen the politics ofthe Legislature, she moved on to the bench on the statetrial and appellate courts14— spearheading, as one of her final acts as an elected official, a successful initiative drive to convert Arizona to merit selection of state court judges.15 Sandra Day O’Connor...