EDITOR'S NOTE: Loyal Meek, editor of the Phoenix Gazette, recently visited Supreme Court Justice Sandra O'Connor at her office in Washington.

By LOYAL MEEK
The Phoenix Gazette

WASHINGTON Justice Sandra Day O'Connor sits on the tip of a marble iceberg.

"Are you enjoying it?" she is asked.

"That's not the right word," she
replies.

Nearly a year and a half after joining eight male colleagues on the Supreme Court of the United States, she says she finds the job interesting, challenging, demanding. The responsibilities, she indicates, are not the sort to be enjoyed.

Soon the interviewer finds himself answering more questions than he is asking as Madame Justice ("Please call me Sandra," she said at our greeting) seeks information on what's happening in Phoenix.

As the newest member of the high court, and more significantly, its first woman member, Justice O'Connor is under an especially penetrating scrutiny.

Those who observed her in action in the Arizona Legislature, the state superior and appeals courts and in such public arenas as Town Hall will not be surprised to hear that shoe is meeting the challenge with efficient aplomb.

If anything has dismayed her, it is probably how demanding the job is.

At the tip of the marble iceberg that is the nation's court system from JPs on up, justice in America suffers from an overwhelming case load.

Some might suggest that the computer, with its fantastic word-processing, case-researching capabilities, may offer a means for the courts