A New Order in the Court

By Richard Stengel

Public celebrations for the Brethren's first sister

As the five-minute buzzer sounded summoning Senators to cast their votes, Sandra Day O'Connor, 51, wrung her hands nervously and awaited her fate in an anteroom near the Senate floor. "This is the longest five minutes of my life," she said with an anxious smile. Yet her fate was never in doubt. By a vote of 99 to 0,* the Senate made Judge O'Connor Justice O'Connor, the Supreme Court's first female member in its 191 years. Even Republican Jeremiah Denton of Alabama, the only member of the Judiciary Committee who refused to recommend O'Connor's confirmation, acquiesced this time. He confessed that colleagues warned him they would "laugh me out of the Senate" if he voted no.

When the tally was in, O'Connor received a congratulatory hug from fellow Arizonan Barry Goldwater and descended the Capitol steps. Accompanied by Goldwater, Vice President George Bush and other supporters, she gazed at the imposing marble facade of the Supreme Court across the way and said earnestly: "My hope is that ten years from now, after I've been across the street and worked for a while, they'll feel glad that they gave me this wonderful vote."

All week there were celebrations, formal and informal, public and private, to mark O'Connor's triumph. Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, who guided the confirmation vote from his position as chairman of the Judiciary Committee, gave a candlelit dinner in her honor at a Pakistani restaurant. In marked contrast to the spicy food in front of them, Nancy Thurmond, the Senator's wife, offered a dulcet toast to O'Connor as "the best thing to come down the pike since Girl Scout cookies." On Thursday, at a ceremony in the Rose Garden honoring federal district and appellate court judges and Supreme Court Justices, President Reagan beamed with pride. Looking intently at O'Connor, the President affirmed that the nation demands of judges "a wisdom that knows no time, has no prejudice and wants no other reward." O'Connor did not blanch or blush.

After the days of public celebration, the induction of the newest Justice began in private with an absence of pomp. In the court's conference room, before the President and Nancy Reagan, her fellow Brethren, retiring Justice Potter Stewart, and her sons, O'Connor placed her right hand on two O'Connor family Bibles held by her husband John. She repeated the judicial oath to "do equal right to the poor and to the rich."

The pomp followed. O'Connor was escorted to the ornate marble-and-mahogany courtroom. While 500 invited guests looked on, she was seated in the chair once occupied by John Marshall, the Chief Justice (1801 -1835) who introduced the principle of judicial review of executive and legislative acts, establishing the court's authority in the fledgling nation. The bailiff cried the traditional "oyez, oyez," and the eight Justices stood silently behind the wooden bench. O'Connor then took a second oath ("I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States ..."), and a clerk of the court helped Justice O'Connor slip on a black robe over her lavender-colored dress. With a quick smile and a sure step, O'Connor took her place beside her colleagues. Like the opinions she has handed down in her two years on the Arizona State Court of Appeals, the ceremony was brief (six minutes) and precise. The robe was the same one she had worn while on the Arizona bench, and looked a bit tatty. "I'll buy a new one eventually," she promised. "They do get old, you know."

O'Connor took up the burdens of her new job immediately. She had been closeted in an office in the Senate for days boning up for the cases likely to come before her. She also hired four law clerks, three of whom had been promised jobs by Justice Stewart, whose retirement had opened a spot on the court for her.

Earlier in the week, O'Connor mused that "Thomas Jefferson and James Madison would be turning over in their graves." Who can be sure? But there is little doubt that those founding fathers would marvel at the ease, graciousness and widespread public approval with which this particular Justice has become a precedent. --By Richard Stengel.

Reported by Evan Thomas/Washington

The vote would have been a perfect 100 to 0, but Democrat Max Baucus of Montana, an ardent O'Connor supporter, had to return to his home state just before the vote.

With reporting by Evan Thomas/Washington

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