Farewell, Justice O’Connor

She was nominated to the Supreme Court in July 1981, just a few weeks after I’d graduated from high school. The media interest in her confirmation and ascension to the Court seemed a bit overblown to me, because at the time I had unrealistically optimistic views about the status of women in the legal profession, and in society generally. Her presence on the Court has been a constant for my entire adult life, which sometimes was inexplicably comforting. The scrutiny she has received over the years has been severe, and while I disagree with a lot of the opinions she wrote or joined, sometimes quite powerfully, I’ve always had a profound admiration for her extraordinary grace under pressure. I remember feeling defensive on her behalf when a law school professor rather patronizingly complimented her ability to write a coherent opinon, and again whenever the churlish Scalia derided her in his writings. I was as angry as anybody by the majority opinion in Bush v. Gore and I think O’Connor’s vote was clearly wrong at every conceivable level, but I also couldn’t help noticing that she seemed to receive harsher and most personalized criticism for her actions than any of the other Justices. I’ve found her to be a boring speaker, and her grasp of the complexities of patent, copyright and trademark law seemed somewhat tenuous at times. She lived a privileged and seemingly charmed life that disconnected her from the realities of most Americans. Yet until Ruth Bader Ginsburg got to the Court, for better or worse, she was “my Justice,” a woman like me, who, unlike me, was fearless in the face of significant challenges. I’m really going to miss her.

–Ann Bartow