Sandra Day O'Connor Quotes
My concerns through the years increased about the concerns of an independent judiciary and how we maintain it. Certainly in the states. I'm a product of state government in my own state of Arizona. And it seemed to me that the popular election of judges was creating major problems in many states, and we had improved the system in Arizona. And I thought the nation ought to at least rethink how we select our nation's trial judges in the states.
O'Connor, Sandra Day. Out of Order: Stories from the History of the Supreme Court. Random House, 2013.
Judges are easily attacked by those who do not like their decisions. In most cases judges can net even ethically defend themselves and so they are common victims of politicians and demagogues.
Johnson thought that he was 5 votes short to pass the Economic Opportunity Act to launch his War on Poverty. This quotation shows the master of Presidential vote getting in action. Jones came from a very conservative and racist district in Florida. In addition to the general conservative concern about the bill. White Southern racists were still angry about the Civil Rights Act that had just passed and saw the anti-poverty programs as another opportunity for the Federal Government to have racially integrated employment and training programs in the South. If Jones voted for the anti-poverty bill, he might well be defeated in the 1966 election. The President promised to appoint him as a Federal Judge—a lifetime appointment—if he were defeated. A potential problem was that there would not likely be a vacant judgeship open in Alabama. Johnson promised that he would create another judgeship for Jones if necessary—a judgeship that was not really needed. Jones was reelected and President Johnson did not have to create a new judgeship.
Over 30 states at the time required state judges to stand for election. The result was that they had to have money to finance their campaigns like any other politicians. The results were many cases of lack of impartiality and enormous public perception that the judges were beholden to large campaign contributors. Justice O’Connor pointed out to them that they had created their own problems by popularly electing judges.
Presidential dissatisfaction with the judiciary is an old and common problem.
The country was growing and the number of Federal Judges were totally inadequate. The main reason is that the Senators were appointed by state legislatures and states did not want any Federal Judges perhaps weakening the power of the state governments and the judiciary.
Sandra Day O'Connor is a retired attorney and politician who served as the first woman associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1981 to 2006. She was the first woman nominated and confirmed. Nominated by President Ronald Reagan, she was considered the swing vote for the Rehnquist Court and the beginning of the Roberts Court.
