Althouse: "My heart sank. I had a very happy life in Arizona. I was a judge. I liked my lifestyle. I liked my family."

January 16, 2009

"My heart sank. I had a very happy life in Arizona. I was a judge. I liked my lifestyle. I liked my family."

"I liked where we lived, and I didn't want to move to Washington, D.C. ... I had not served on the federal court. ... I didn't know if I could do the job well enough."

Sandra Day O'Connor remembers how she felt back in 1981, when Ronald Reagan nominated her to the Supreme Court.

13 comments:

Bissage said...: BART: How could you Krusty? I'd never lend my name to an inferior product.

KRUSTY: [wailing] They drove a dump truck full of money up to my house! I'm not made of stone!; 1/16/09, 8:35 AM
Swifty Quick said...: And then we got to spend the next 25 years with our hearts sinking as she failed to live up to as advertised, and ultimately to expectations.; 1/16/09, 8:46 AM
Anonymous said...: Could she have been confirmed, had she been nominated by Bush in 2006?; 1/16/09, 8:49 AM
Cedarford said...: And to think the vapid bitch with her famous opaque decisions and cretinish & illogical "balancing tests" didn't want the job.
We could have avoided Casey, her rectal pluck of declaring we need 25 more years of affirmative action, Lawrence which opens the door to gay marriage and polygamy.

Plus the joy of knowing no one was sure how she would rule and how she would try to legal-eese a decision formed entirely on how she felt when she got out of bed that day or how she thought she would vote on it if she was a legislator.

And those Scalia dissents eviscerating her and the other jurist he has no professional respect for, Kennedy? Only half the fun with her gone.; 1/16/09, 9:04 AM
traditionalguy said...: She was a good person,if you like good persons. Trouble is that being a Judge doesn't lend itself to trying to please everybody. The drawing good legal Boundaries is an art like that of good surgeons. The best persons for these jobs are nice guys/gals who have also mastered an un-loved skill of cutting precisely even if it hurts some people.; 1/16/09, 9:05 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Left up to Sandra she would try and part the baby even after it was aborted..

Kind of like I picture the Obama administration.

Another “first”,.. firsties usually suck.; 1/16/09, 9:38 AM
I'm Full of Soup said...: I saw her at Trader Joe's in Phoenix when I was there on business 2-3 years ago. I said hello to her- she was nice and friendly.

It was the first time I had ever been in a Trader's Joe. Do you know it is hard to find a normal regular bag of potato chips in a Traders Joe's?; 1/16/09, 9:47 AM
Simon said...: Well, she was pretty good on federalism issues. For the most part. On that score, I'm not yet convinced that we haven't taken two steps back losing her and Rehnquist; Alito's dissent in the United Haulers case - the "case about garbage" as the chief put it - was a deeply worrying signpost to me.; 1/16/09, 9:51 AM
Simon said...: Lem said...
"firsties usually suck."

"First"? She was hardly the first state court judge put on the Supreme Court, Lem!; 1/16/09, 9:54 AM
Anonymous said...: She would have been confirmed easily had Bush nominated, because she was extremely qualified.

She dated Rehnquist after all.; 1/16/09, 10:03 AM
tim maguire said...: In law school earlier this millenium, I did a summer abroad in Ireland and Justice O'Connor, while still on the bench, happened to be vacationing nearby. She agreed to join our class on a field trip to a historical something or other (cemetaries and museums and such) one Sunday morning. I expected she would meet us at the museum for a little while, maybe sit at the head table at lunch.

But when we climbed on the bus at 8:00 AM Sunday morning, there she was already on board and waiting for us. She gave us the entire day, including a good 30 minutes standing next to a lake posing for pictures with 60 students, one at a time so we could each have a one-on-one picture with her. She also guest lectured a couple classes the next day.

She was incredibly generous with her time and gracious as a person. So while I agree with everyone's opinion of her record on the court, habitually interpreting the constitution to mean whatever she thought it should mean at that particular moment, I have deep respect for her as a person.; 1/16/09, 10:22 AM
Unknown said...: I didn't know if I could do the job well enough.

Her hesitation was well-founded.; 1/16/09, 10:59 AM
blake said...: It was the first time I had ever been in a Trader's Joe. Do you know it is hard to find a normal regular bag of potato chips in a Traders Joe's?

What kind of moron goes looking for a regular bag of chips at a TJs?

What? Oh, first time, eh? OK, I'll let it slide this once.; 1/16/09, 3:04 PM