This is the Justice whose swing vote gave you George W. Bush in the Supreme Court decision appointing him President in 2000. Checking the Supreme Court’s collection of her opinions, reveals that she did not give one on Bush vs Gore in 2000, she silently gave her consent on one of the most controversial historical decisions of the court.
While all the praises come flowing in, I found this humourous piece in the TalkingPointsMemo café.
Elegance would have been to say hi back, or even just to smile. She’s horrible in that same folky white haired false-humility way that Barbara Bush is. Her case worker, or attendant, or whoever he was, looked stricken by her rudeness.
And third, I heard her read from her memoir that night, and it was so terrible that it made my stomach ache. She read a segment about her childhood, growing up on a ranch, about standing outside under the stars at night, which looked so close you could TOUCH them–I am not making this up–and I said to my tiny princess self, “Bore me later”. And left, as unobtrustively as I could.
She’s horrible in that same folky white haired false-humility way that Barbara Bush is.
Like Barbara Bush, the person who writes children’s books, the same person who bred two war mongers, the same person who forgot to teach GWB to read.
But back to Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, big deal, the first woman Justice. The question is did she put the best interests of the country first? I think she owes the Democrats an explanation of her 2000 swing vote on Bush vs Gore.
The “Ice Queen” is gone, long live Torture King Alberto Gonzales!
Update [2005-7-5 15:10:8 by sybil]:From the Vanity Fair, October 2004 report on “The Path to Florida” we learn that Justice O’Connor actually expressed her dismay at a Gore win at a party, on election night. She was expected to step aside by the liberal clerks of the Court. Later, when Gore’s lawyers heard about this, they thought about asking her to step aside. Later, November 29, 2000, at a party another clerk recalls, “she thought the Florida court was trying to steal the election and that they had to stop it.” She railed against what she considered “the stupidity of the Florida voters.” The report suggests that her mind was made up from the beginning, although the Democrats still had hopes of persuading her and Kennedy. Kennedy was the one they suggest was the real swing voter.
on Bush v. Gore and the Supreme Court battle. Although it was against precendent and considered wrong, some of the judges’ clerks decided to speak to reporters because they were so upset with the way things went down.
The clerks felt that O’Connor had made up her mind as soon as she heard that the case was going to be heard by SCOTUS.
Thanks for reminding me. Read it then and now I’m going to go over it and update my diary.
It is:
VANITY FAIR, OCTOBER 2004, #530
THE PATH TO FLORIDA
by
David Margolick, Evgenia Peretz, Michael Shnayerson
Thanks, Sybil! And it was hilarious too.
yes – Newsweek did a report too, after the 2000 decision, and referenced the same source who reported that SDOC went “ballistic” at the thought of Gore winning in the Florida courts, and ranting that it would ruin her plans of retirement.
of course, you know, it was Newsweek …
From the Seattle Times
Why consult someone with such obvious bias? A judge’s judge who wanted Bush to win so badly, would have stepped aside for the Bush vs Gore decision.
to the moment in Bush’s Administration when he’s the most immune to influence from the people.
It looks to my laymen’s eyes as though she’s only made 2 decisions that matter: Selecting the President, and ensuring that his interests will rule the Court indefinitely.
I for one will never forgive O’Connor for giving us Bush. I had never heard the stories of her comments at a party. Can anything be done about that or is it just hearsay?
It’s not hearsay. She likes to party and she has a big mouth. Liberal clerks, who were shocked and expected her to step aside, were witnesses to her statement. She later made statements that she thought the Florida legislature was trying to ‘steal the election from Bush.’ Nothing can be done.
Scalia was so partisan that it will prevent him from ever becoming Chief Justice.
She truly is one of those folky white haired hypocrites.
From the Vanity Fair, October 2004 report on “The Path to Florida” we learn that Justice O’Connor actually expressed her dismay at a Gore win at a party, on election night.
Yup! I put up a diary last week on the equally odious Justice Kennedy, and managed to find an active link, with the whole text of the Vanity Fair piece. It’s a stunning read. My diary has some other good links on the legally indefensible Bush v. Gore decision.
on the Kennedy. I wrote this diary after hearing all the praise reaped upon O’Connor by people, left and right politically. How soon we forget. And in Canada, it’s not such a big deal when a woman is given a prime appointment. The question is can the person male/female do the job. It must be the fundies who are behind that cultural anachronism in the US.
There is another diary on the Justices on Dkos by Hunter.
He finds Thomas and Kennedy to be the most activist judges because they voted the most to repeal congressional laws.
Thomas 65.63 %
Kennedy 64.06 %
Scalia 56.25 %
Rehnquist 46.88 %
O’Connor 46.77 %
Souter 42.19 %
Stevens 39.34 %
Ginsburg 39.06 %
Breyer 28.13 %
I had heard of her comments at the party. She had wanted to retire in 2001. I’ve also read that O’Connor was taken aback and shocked at the intensity of anger against at the Supreme Court in the aftermath of their judicial coup d’etat. People angry that their votes were thrown in the garbage and judges picked the President…imagine that Sandy ??? O’Connor is also chummy with Barbara Bush so back in 2000 I thought she was more in the Bush’s pocket than many realized.
The real swing vote was Kennedy. Justice Souter said that if he had 48 more hours he thinks Kennedy could have been persuaded to vote for the recount.
My speculation is that the judges made a “gentlemen’s (and ladies’) agreement” not to resign during Bush’s first term so as to try to rehabilitate the reputation of the court. But as far as I’m concerned every member of the Gang of Five are forever sullied and a stain on the history of this nation.