Word: connors
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...appoint a woman who meets the very high standards I demand of all court appointees." So saying, he introduced his nominee to succeed retiring Associate Justice Potter Stewart as "a person for all seasons," with "unique qualities of temperament, fairness, intellectual capacity." She was Sandra Day O'Connor, 51, the first woman to serve as majority leader of a U.S. state legislature and, since 1979, a judge in the Arizona State Court of Appeals...
...Connor's name had been floated about in rumors ever since Stewart, 66, announced his intention to retire last month, but her nomination, which must be approved by the Senate in September, was a stunning break with tradition. In its 191-year history, 101 judges have served on the nation's highest court, and all have been men. By giving the brethren their first sister, Reagan provided not only a breakthrough on the bench but a powerful push forward in the shamefully long and needlessly tortuous march of women toward full equality in American society...
...sure, Reagan's announcement that he intended to elevate O'Connor to the highest U.S. Government post ever held by a woman had its roots in partisan politics. Mainly because he had been portrayed by Jimmy Carter as a man who might blunder the nation into war, Reagan had lacked strong support among women in last year's campaign. Moreover, his Administration's record of appointing women to office is very poor: only one highly visible Cabinet-level post (Ambassador to the United Nations Jeane Kirkpatrick); only 45 women among the 450 highest positions...
There were also ironies aplenty in Reagan's choice of O'Connor. As a true-blue conservative, he had been widely expected to select a rigidly doctrinaire jurist in order to stamp his own political ideology on the court. Instead, he picked a meticulous legal thinker whose devotion to precedent and legal process holds clear priority over her personal politics, which are Republican conservative...
Whether Reagan was playing shrewd politics, or merely following his own best instincts, almost did not matter. After naming O'Connor, the President suddenly found himself awash in praise from a wide range of political liberals, moderates and old-guard conservatives. At the same time, he was under harsh assault from the moral-issue zealots in the New Right who helped him reach the Oval Office. Although they had little chance of blocking the nomination, they charged that O'Connor was a closet supporter of the ERA and favored abortion...