'Reading' Justice Sandra Day O'Connor

January 1, 1982

ITEM DETAILS
Type: Law review article
Author: Carl R. Schenker
Source: Cath. U. L. Rev.
Citation: 31 Cath. U. L. Rev. 487 (1982)
Notes: Date is approximate

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"READING" JUSTICE SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR

Carl R. Schenker, Jr.•

On September 25, 1981, Judge Sandra Day O'Connor of the Court of Appeals of Arizona took the oath of office as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Justice O'Connor's elevation to the Court should be of great interest to state and local governments because her extensive prior involvement in local government should give her an unusual perspective in cases before the Court implicating state or local interests.

I. INTRODUCTION

Justice O'Connor has served previously as an assistant state attorney general, a state legislator, and a state trial and intermediate appellate court judge. Thus, her professional experiences have been intensely "local" and presumably have versed her thoroughly in many of the problems con fronting state and local governments. By contrast, most of the sitting Jus tices were working within a "federal" context at the time of appointment to the Court. When nominated, Chief Justice Burger and Justices Marshall, Blackmun, and Stevens were all sitting on United States Courts of Ap peals; Justices White and Rehnquist were serving as senior officials in the Department of Justice. And neither of the other members of the Court, Justices Brennan and Powell, had as wide a variety of experiences in state and local government as Justice O'Connor.

Popular publicity concerning Justice O'Connor has emphasized that she is the first woman to sit on the Court, rather than that her experience

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