On July 7, 1981, Conservative President Ronald Reagan announced he was nominating an Arizona state judge, Sandra Day O'Connor, to become the first female justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. She would later be confirmed and was the first. This was a shrewd move by Reagan. As a state official and conservative, she would get the votes of conservative Senators. The liberals, however, could not vote against a female, no matter how conservative. Many liberals had been calling for a female on the Court for years. Along with C.J. Rehnquist and some others on the Court, O’Connor revitalized a meaningful approach to federalism, an approach that was lost beginning in the late 1930’s.
SCOTUS Justice O'Connor demonstrated a far better grasp of constitutional boundaries limiting federal powers than any of her predecessors, contemporaries and successors. For this, she is a true American heroine for liberty and real justice. Our country's supreme bench is in dire need of more Sandra Day O'Connor s. Her selection was a very good and necessary call made by President Reagan.
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