Transitions — Sandra Day O'Connor
 

Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court and often the swing vote on 5-4 decisions, is to retire.

Ms O'Connor, 75, was nominated by Ronald Reagan to serve on the court and took her seat in 1981.

God Help us..................GW gets to pick at least one Supreme Court justice.

Yep,he gets to pick another..By the time GW is done with this country,WE'RE going to need to be invaded,and be freed..Hey,maybe England wants us back!!

Nahhh.......maybe Canada will take us. Let's hope so.

*sigh* This was my biggest fear after the election. Rhenquist was one thing, because he was conservative to start with, but O'Connor was always the swing vote... she will be sorely missed. Did anyone see this coming?

Americans prepare.... soon the country will be a much different place. Makes me wonder if the internet is gonna be regulated like they're doing in China.

FallenAngel5,

Only if we let it happen.

Well... Alberto is one of those on the list.. :( :eek:

Bush said that he won't nominate anyone,until he returns from Europe,
probably,Wend/Thurs.Ted Kennedy has already said that he will vote NO!
Now I know why I'm a registered independant.I hope this doesn't violate my No More Politics thread.All I can say again ,is United we stand-Divided(sp)
we fall! Irish :hair:

I misread what Irish wrote as:



I was thinking how true that was and then I read the 'we fall'.

Like the walls of Jericho here we go a-tumblin' then.

And yes we're tiptoeing along the edge of the whole "no more politics" thing.

Gentlefolk,

Rather than let the focus of this thread shift away from Justice O'Connor, who has served (I think most would agree) the Supreme Court well during her tenure, why not save discussion of her possible successor for another thread?

Although she was a conservative Arizona politician, she really was quite the swing vote on the court.

Conservative (in the old fashioned use of the word) opinions of hers included the deciding vote in the case of Webster vs. Reproductive Health Services, which upheld a law giving states the right to make specific abortion decisions. This disappointed the judicial activists who had hoped for further restrictions on abortions. In December 2000, she voted against a state-wide recount in Florida, deciding the 2000 presidential election in favor of George Bush.

Her Liberal opinions included voting to invalidate the criminal prohibition of homosexual sodomy in Texas in the case of Lawrence vs. Texas. This decision was far reaching. Judge O'Connor also gave the deciding vote which upheld the McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill, which was designed to curb the influence of money in politics.

She seemed to have been a “strict constructionist” in the sense that she assessed each case on its own terms, not as a piece in some over-arching philosophical plan.

I hope her successor will measure up to her standards.

I remember reading about her appointment in my "Book of Knowledge" series I think it was & she was someone I really admired.

Then I realized, OMG I was only eight when she was appointed. What a nerd I was! :D

Her "swing vote" didn't,do much good on the "wonderful" dicision on "Imminent
Domain" that everyone was complaigning about recently. Irish
P.S.Pardon the spelling,but we didn't,bust our asses,so that some Fat Cat,
could take everything from us! :(

Irish,

In “Kelo vs. City of New London”, Justice O’Connor filed a dissenting opinion, along with The Chief Justice, Justice Scalia, and Justice Thomas. Also, when the State exercises eminent domain, compensation is required.

That still doesn’t make the decision a good one.