Cowgirl not swing vote. Get it right.
Sandra Day O’Connor the nation’s first female Supreme Court justice made it clear at Friday’s lecture at the Pepperdine School of Law how she wants to go down in history.
During an opening speech by Pepperdine School of Law Dean Ken Starr honoring former U.S. Attorney General William French Smith after whom the annual lecture is named O’Connor interrupted politely and asked if she could interject.”I have a little story about William French Smith and Sandra Day O’Connor she offered.
In 1952, after graduating third in her class from Stanford Law School (future Chief Justice William Rehnquist was first), O’Connor – then Miss Day – quickly learned that the legal community was not welcoming to young, bright – female – attorneys.
Stanford law grads call our firm read announcements on the campus bulletin, O’Connor recalled. “Well I called every one on that bulletin board and not one of them would give me an interview. Not one.”
After finally gaining an interview through the help of a friend O’Connor discovered that Gibson Dunn and Crutcher the prestigious Los Angeles firm where William French Smith practiced was no different.
“Oh Miss Day you have a fine record said the distinguished looking” lawyer. “But Miss Day this firm has never hired a woman lawyer and I do not see the time when we will. Our clients would not stand for it retold O’Connor in a deep, patronizing voice.
The audience hung on the justice’s every word.
So he says ‘Well Miss Day how well can you type? If you can type well enough we might be able to get you on as a legal secretary.'”
To thunderous applause O’Connor reported that she declined the offer.
But the justice had one last laugh up her sleeve about the lecture’s namesake. When a certain William French Smith another “distinguished lawyer” she had not yet met from Gibson Dunne and Crutcher called her later about a position in Washington D.C. she could not resist.
“You mean a secretarial job?” she said.
Despite ironies surrounding her presence in honor of William French Smith O’Connor made clear that he subsequently was most influential when she was applying for a different job – a seat on the Supreme Court.
Also of influence was a young upcoming counselor in the attorney general’s office. On behalf of Smith Ken Starr flew to Arizona to “check out this Sandra Day O’Connor” after President Reagan had determined to nominate a woman to the Supreme Court. Starr also wrote a confidential report on O’Connor’s abortion views for Smith and played a key role in preparing O’Connor for questioning prior to the confirmation hearing in 1981.
O’Connor had no qualms in describing what she views as the real motivation behind how United States Senate pursues the Supreme Court appointment process.
Beginning with her nomination “the television stations started to give it gavel-to-gavel coverage for a judiciary hearing for Supreme Court nominees O’Connor said. And the senators loved that. They dream for that! They’re there all day every day looking erudite and asking all these tough questions.”
However for O’Connor the media brouhaha that is the Supreme Court appointment process is simply a reality of political life. The Constitution invests in Congress the power to approve court nominees and the senators can conduct the process however they choose she said.
Once finally confirmed to the court O’Connor remained a straight-talking rancher’s daughter.
“She’s as comfortable with cowboys as she is with ambassadors or heads of state Starr said.
Never shy to correct the record, O’Connor quipped, Or maybe more so!”
Raised on an Arizona ranch where she said her only companions were her “two parents and the cowboys Sandra Day O’Connor is famous for her down-to-earth nature, independent spirit and forthrightness.
She’s a very colloquial speaker; her perspective is much different said Nate Patera, a Pepperdine graduate student earning a joint degree in business and public policy. She’s known for being a very accessible person … I think that’s a great virtue that she’s able to connect day-to-day [both] with the court and the average person.”
Telling the story of how she met her husband allowed O’Connor to identify further with students.
While working for the Stanford Law Review she and Bob O’Connor were given an article to fact check together in the library.
But because it was such a long article John suggested they get some fresh air and finish it up “down the highway at Dinah’s Shack a former institution in Palo Alto with a colorful history among Stanford students.
And we went out every night after that for one month in a row. And John was exhausted!” she said.
According to O’Connor she’s not the only justice with a sense of humor. She said Justice Scalia is a marvelous storyteller as was Rehnquist.
“Now David Souter – there’s a surprise for you she said. Never forgets a conversation. He could have had the conversation 40 year ago when he was a student at Harvard and he could repeat it word for word. He had great stories to tell us.”
O’Connor lamented that all nine justices for the first time in history were former federal appeals court judges. In prior years most justices had no judicial experience.
“Do I think that’s good? No I do not!” she said. “The court has benefitted through the years from having people with different experiences. I think it’s better if we have a firm diversity.”
But despite her candidness O’Connor dismissed an audience question read by Starr asking her to comment on Roe v. Wade.
“No I don’t want to comment on it! Do you want me to comment on it?” she said. “That’s nonsense. I’m not there anymore.”However she did provide insight into the future direction of the country with the new Obama administration particularly in regard to the Law of the Sea International Criminal Court (ICC) and Kyoto Agreement – all international treaties that former U.S. presidents have not signed. O’Connor recently served on a committee which reviewed the United States’ relationship with the ICC.
“I think over time we’re going to see a lot of interchange and a lot of these laws are going to get signed … though maybe not in [their] present form she said. But I suspect we’ll see over time some greater involvement by our country and maybe a little education of other countries along the way about the reasons for our hesitation.”
On a hopeful note for students preparing to enter a struggling job market O’Connor offered words of encouragement from her own experience overcoming adversity in the workforce.
“You may have to take a job especially in today’s climate that isn’t your first choice she said. But the point I want to make is if you are smart maybe you can make something out of it that’s a lot better.”
Coming from whom Starr has called the “most influential and powerful woman in America O’Connor’s advice hit home with students, soliciting the loudest applause during the event._We don’t face the obstacles she had to said Pepperdine public policy graduate student Josephine Huang after the event. For her to take a job and get where she is today is inspiring.”