5/29/2023 0 Comments Sarah day o connor![]() "But in the 1992 case she said that since Roe had been the law for so long and many women had come to depend on it, there was no going back." "If Justice O'Connor had been on the Court in 1973, she might not have voted for Roe," Biskupic said. Her pragmatism, as well as her eye for the institutional stability of the Court, was evident in her vote. ![]() Wade decision that made abortion legal nationwide. Casey, O'Connor joined with four other justices to uphold the controversial 1973 Roe v. In 1992's Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Some analysts also have pointed out that her opinions lack clear guidance for lower courts." "Because she doesn't believe the Supreme Court should be too far ahead or behind public consensus, she's open to the criticism that she blows with the political winds. O'Connor is often praised for keeping the Court "centered," but Biskupic points out that her pragmatism sometimes invites criticism. She has a tendency to resolve disputes on a case-by-case basis, rather than to engage in sweeping pronouncements of law. She became a strong voice for deference to state judges." For example, O'Connor has been a leader on the current court to restrict the appeals of death row prisoners to federal judges, providing more protection for state judges' decisions.Īccording to Biskupic, Sandra Day O'Connor, in contrast to more "rigid" justices like Antonin Scalia, takes a pragmatic approach to cases. Also, as a former state legislator, then judge, in Arizona, O'Connor resented federal judges second-guessing the decisions of state courts. "Her western roots contributed to her favoring states against the dominant power of the federal government. It also is remarkable that a woman whose sheer presence seemed so foreign to the male bastion of the law would eventually dominate it."īiskupic chronicles O'Connor's rise through Arizona politics and notes that her ideology was shaped by her experiences in the West. She was a natural politician who was always looking to the future. "Sandra Day O'Connor had begun a path to national prominence long before Reagan chose her. Biskupic notes that a closer examination of O'Connor's background tells a slightly different story. When President Ronald Reagan appointed O'Connor in 1981, the media described this first woman justice as someone who had been plucked from obscurity. Joan Biskupic, a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center, is tracing the evolution of the Supreme Court, focusing on Justice O'Connor, who she believes is the most influential justice on the current Court. The Supreme Court has changed dramatically over the past three decades, moving away from the liberalism associated with Chief Justice Earl Warren to the "states' rights" and pragmatic conservatism exemplified by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
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