Justice O’Connor participated in an interview with the New York Times to promote her new website for children. Though she declines to call herself a feminist, take note of what she does say:
Do you call yourself a feminist?
I never did. I care very much about women and their progress. I didn’t go march in the streets, but when I was in the Arizona Legislature, one of the things that I did was to examine every single statute in the state of Arizona to pick out the ones that discriminated against women and get them changed.
So do you call yourself a feminist today?
I don’t call myself that.
Is there a label you prefer?
A fair judge and a hard worker.
(She also had some very nice things to say about Justice Ginsberg.) While Justice O’Connor may not be thought of as a “feminist” and rejects that label, a parsing of her opinions in Ngyuen v. INS and the main portion of Planned Parenthood v. Casey – which essentially saved Roe – say enough about her judicial philosophy in this regard.
— Nareissa L. Smith, cross-posted from Constitutional Law Prof Blog
