Honoring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor
HONORING JUSTICE SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR -- (House of Representatives - March 01, 2006)
Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the bill introduced by the gentlelady from Florida. As a member of the Congressional Women's Caucus, I applaud Justice Sandra Day O'Connor for her leadership as the first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Appointment of Justice O'Connor added life to the women's movement, and when Justice Ginsburg was appointed, we had 2 very strong allies when these matters came before the high court. Her judicious leadership stood out when she joined Justices Souter and Kennedy in crafting a compromise to uphold Roe v. Wade in the Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision--that included the standard of limiting state regulation of abortions to the threshold of causing an ``undue burden'' on a woman's right to choose.
Justice O'Connor helped to protect affirmative action by making the swing vote in the 5-to-4 decision of Grutter v. Bollinger. This decision was a landmark that still has precedential value in terms of preserving the notion that there is not only the right to due process in the law at stake but the value of racial diversity in education.
Most recently, though, many of us on both sides of the aisle commend Justice O'Connor for her dissent in the recent Supreme Court decision of Kelo v. City of New London et. al (No. 04-108. Argued February 22, 2005--Decided June 23, 2005), in which she stated that [a]ny property may now be taken for the benefit of another private party, but the fallout from this decision will not be random. The beneficiaries are likely to be those citizens with disproportionate influence and power in the political process, including large corporations and development firms ..... [t]he Founders cannot have intended this perverse result. `[T]hat alone is a just government,' wrote James Madison, `which impartially secures to every man, whatever is his own.'
I hope that the Court will continue this kind of sound judgment and leadership on matters of such great significance to our disadvantaged communities.
Mr. Speaker, I support this legislation, and I thank Justice O'Connor for her service to our Highest Court.
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