O'Connor: Attacks On Judges "Appalling"

TULSA, Okla. (AP) _ Recent attacks on ``activist judges'' by legislative bodies could be putting the concept of an independent judiciary at risk, retired Associate Supreme Court Justice Sandra

Friday, June 1st 2007, 7:37 pm

By: News On 6

TULSA, Okla. (AP) _ Recent attacks on ``activist judges'' by legislative bodies could be putting the concept of an independent judiciary at risk, retired Associate Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said Friday.

``These are appalling times,'' O'Connor told a crowd of 700 during a moderated discussion about her career at the University of Tulsa. ``There is so much rancor and dislike going on.''

O'Connor asked the crowd if it heard of the attacks on so-called ``godless, secular humanist, activist judges,'' and cited cases in several states where people attempted to introduce ballot measures that would toss judges in jail for making the wrong decisions or shorten their terms on the bench.

O'Connor, the first woman to serve on the nation's highest court, said part of the rancor began after the Terri Schiavo case, in which a patient in a vegetative state became the center of a legal dispute over whether to remove her feeding tube.

She said an independent judiciary enables judges to resolve cases fairly, ``and let the chips fall where they may,'' even if the legislative branch isn't happy with the outcome.

O'Connor, 77, who held key swing votes in decisions involving abortion rights, separation of church and state and affirmative action, retired in 2006 after nearly 25 years of service on the Supreme Court. She was appointed to the bench by President Ronald Reagan in 1981.

In a 90-minute question and answer session about her career, O'Connor also discussed her recent role as a member of the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan commission that met to assess the current and prospective situation in Iraq and the surrounding region. The report called for a gradual troop pullout and more aggressive regional diplomacy.

``The situation in Iraq is dire,'' she said. ``It looks now to me many of the recommendations are being looked at again and perhaps promoted.''

She described the early days of her law career in Phoenix, where firms were reluctant to hire female attorneys. So she started up a small firm in a suburb, taking the types of cases not decided by the Supreme Court, she joked.

``If you ever did get some kind of work finally, you were scared to death to ever stop,'' she said.

She drew several parallels between her storied career and childhood at the Lazy B cattle ranch in her native Arizona.

``If you learn to herd a bunch of cows ... you could probably get along with a bunch of cranky justices,'' she said.