Sandra Day O’Connor the first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court will deliver the third annual William French Smith Memorial Lecture at Pepperdine on Friday.
O’Connor who retired in 2005 at the age of 75 will speak in the School of Law’s Henry J. and Gloria Caruso Auditorium at 4 p.m. followed by a reception at 5:30 p.m. According to law school officials 800 people have registered to attend and 161 are on the waitlist. Overflow seating will be available in the law school cafeteria.
“We are extremely honored to have such a distinguished jurist and important figure in the history of the U.S. Supreme Court visiting Pepperdine said School of Law Professor Barry McDonald.
Ken Starr, dean of Pepperdine School of Law, will moderate the lecture, which will include three other prominent women in law: Carol A. Chase, a professor of law at Pepperdine and former federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles; Colleen Graffy, deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs at the U.S. Department of State and former director of Pepperdine School of Law’s London program; and Virginia Milstead, a litigation associate and Pepperdine School of Law 2004 alumna.
It’s incredible what the law school is doing bringing such prominent speakers and influential justices who have been on the bench for over 25 years to the university and making them available to the public said junior Kyle Knas, who works as a research assistant for Starr’s office and plans to attend the lecture.
Holly Fujie, president of the California State Bar, praised the lecture series as a wonderful forum for the justices to come and speak on a topic of their choice about the workings of the court and their thought processes.”
Fujie attended the second annual lecture of the series which was delivered by Clarence Thomas associate justice of the Supreme Court in September of 2008. The first lecture was delivered by Samuel A. Alito also an associate justice of the Supreme Court in August of 2007.
Founded in 2006 the lectures draw prominent speakers to discuss issues of law the judiciary and public policy and to serve as an ongoing tribute to William French Smith who was the attorney general under President Reagan.
A series of ironies that shaped O’Connor’s life and define her trailblazing career accompany a story that links O’Connor back to William French Smith making her role as a speaker in a lecture named after him even more fitting.
O’Connor graduated third in her class of 102 at Stanford Law in 1952. First in her class was William H. Rehnquist who would become chief justice of the Supreme Court.
But despite O’Connor’s accomplishments no law firm in California was willing to hire a woman. One firm however offered her a legal secretary job which she turned down for an unpaid position as the deputy attorney general of San Mateo County Calif. Ironically nearly 30 years later a senior partner of the same firm helped O’Connor secure her appointment to the Supreme Court. That lawyer was William French Smith.
Prior to her appointment to the Supreme Court in 1981 by Reagan O’Connor worked as deputy county attorney of San Mateo County from 1952 to 1953 and as a civilian attorney for Quartermaster Market Center in Frankfurt Germany from 1954 to 1957.
O’Connor served as assistant attorney general of Arizona from 1965 to 1969. And in 1969 she was appointed to fill a vacancy in the Arizona State Senate where after three years she became the first woman in the United States to serve as state senate majority leader.
In 1974 with her election to the Maricopa County Superior Court O’Connor left politics for the bench. Five years later she was elevated to the Arizona Court of Appeals.
“Justice O’Connor is a civil rights leader and an inspiration to women and people of color alike said Christine Chambers Goodman, a Pepperdine School of Law professor and faculty adviser to the Pepperdine Women’s Legal Association. I feel especially privileged to enjoy opportunities for which her career paved the way.”
O’Connor who most consider to be a moderate conservative was the tie-breaker in more than three-quarters of the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decisions during her 24 years on the bench. Although she is known to spurn the label “swing vote she increasingly moved to the left of center throughout her time on the bench, casting the deciding vote on a number of monumental cases in favor of the left.
O’Connor’s most famous Supreme Court cases include: Mississippi University for Women v. Hogan (1982), which ruled that it was unconstitutional for a state nursing school to refuse to admit men; Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), in which O’Connor was one of the majority justices who voted to keep abortion legal for women; Lawrence v. Texas (1986), in which the Supreme Court voted 6-3 to strike down the Texas sodomy law; and Grutter v. Bollinger (2003), a crucial affirmative action case, in which O’Connor was the deciding vote and author of the majority opinion that upheld the University of Michigan Law School’s race-based admission policy in the interest of diversity.
Of course she will be remembered for being the first female justice on the Court but she should also be remembered for her intellectually honest opinions and her ability to side with either the moderate or conservative justices depending on the facts and precedents of the cases she reviewed said Roger Cossack, a Pepperdine School of Law professor, who argued before the Supreme Court while she was on the bench.
O’Connor continues to play an important role in the legal community by teaching law and speaking on judicial independence.
She was a giant on the bench and her presence will forever be missed said the Armand Arabian, retired justice of the California Supreme Court.
Earlier this month, O’Connor appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart to promote her new Web site, ourcourts.org, which she created to offer civics lessons to middle-school students and teachers who lack basic knowledge of the workings of the U.S. government.
Even in her retirement she continues as a leader to engage and challenge the legal profession to be better said Maureen Weston, a Pepperdine School of Law professor.
The event is currently full. To be placed on a waitlist or for more information about the third annual William French Smith Memorial Lecture, call 310-506-4653.