O'Connor: A Dual Role — An Introduction

January 1991

O'Connor: A Dual Role — An Introduction
ITEM DETAILS
Type: Law review article
Author: Stephen J. Wermiel
Source: Women's Rts. L. Rep.
Citation: 13 Women's Rts. L. Rep. 129 (1991)

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O'Connor: A Dual Role - An Introduction

STEPHEN J. WERMIEL *

On September 21, 1981, as the U.S. Senate voted to approve her nomination to the United States Supreme Court, Sandra Day O'Connor lis tened in the Capitol hideaway office of Senator Strom Thurmond, the South Carolina Republican and then chairman of the Senate Judiciary Com mittee. When the vote was over and the tally of 99-0 was announced, she walked the short dis tance to the marble steps outside the Senate wing of the Capitol, looked across the vast plaza and beyond the fiery fall foliage to the Supreme Court, and declared, "I am absolutely overjoyed at the expression of support from the Senate. My hope is that ten years from now, after I've been across the street at work for a while they will all be glad that they gave me that wonderful vote."1

When Justice O'Connor was nominated by President Ronald Reagan, two factors dominated both initial public reaction and subsequent state ments at her confirmation hearings: her historic role as the first woman to serve on the Court, and her views on abortion. Now that ten years have elapsed, these factors still top the list in most eval uations of her. However, this emphasis often ob scures a second distinctive role she has established: that of an independent conservative who influences the Court's decisions by virtue of her position in the middle of the Court.

This Article examines these dual roles and concludes that they present sharply contrasting images of Justice

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