Today in Supreme Court History: September 21, 1981

9/21/1981: Justice Sandra Day O'Connor is confirmed by the Senate, 99-0.

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor

Comments

[Dan Schiavetta]

"about the best we are likely to get from Reagan"

-- reaction of me and my friends at the time

Ironic that someone so opposed to equal rights for women would get credit for appointing the first female to the Court, but Carter didn't get to appoint anyone, Nixon stuck with only men, and in LBJ's time women's rights was not a much discussed issue (race was, and in order to get the first black Justice onto the Court he had to maneuver to get Tom Clark to retire).

[Don Nico]

I think that she turned out to be an open-minded and fair Justice and not predictable.

[Don Nico]

We won't see another unanimous vote to confirm a Justice for a very very long time.

[Bob from Ohio]

The peril of making silly campaign promises, see Harris, Kamala.

She was fine overall but there were hundreds of better qualified [and more conservative!] men available. At the time there was too shallow of a pool of qualified female talent.