ALL ABOUT THE RANCH:

When Ronnie Met Sandy (LOU CANNON, 7/07/05, NY Times)

The seeds of Justice O'Connor's appointment were planted in the 1980 presidential campaign. In mid-October, most surveys gave Mr. Reagan a narrow lead over President Jimmy Carter, but his political strategist Stuart K. Spencer worried about a trend in the campaign's private polls, which showed support slipping among women voters. Mr. Spencer discussed this "gender gap" with the candidate and suggested different ways of addressing it. Out of this discussion came a Reagan proposal to name a woman to the Supreme Court.

Some true-blue conservatives on Mr. Reagan's staff were not thrilled. The first vacancy on the court might be the chief justice, they said. Would Mr. Reagan want a woman for that job? Mr. Reagan never really answered the question but mollified these critics by slightly watering down the proposal. In Los Angeles on Oct. 14, he promised to name a woman to "one of the first Supreme Court vacancies in my administration." Mr. Spencer told me recently that he thought this hedge made the proposal less politically dramatic, but he had no doubt that Mr. Reagan meant to put a woman on the court. [...]

The court was back-burner news in February 1981 when Justice Potter Stewart sent word to the new administration through Vice President George H. W. Bush that he intended to retire after the court's term ended in June.

When Mr. Reagan met with his aides to discuss a potential replacement, he recalled his promise and said he wanted a female justice. One of the aides reminded Mr. Reagan of his "one of the first" formulation. Mr. Reagan observed that President Carter had not had any Supreme Court vacancy to fill and said this one might be his only chance. After this exchange, it was clear that Mr. Reagan considered his campaign promise unambiguous, and Attorney General William French Smith, who had once been Mr. Reagan's lawyer in Hollywood, got the message. [...]

Because others on the list had more imposing legal credentials, Judge O'Connor was no sure thing. But she had a friend in court - literally - in William Rehnquist, then an associate justice, whom she had briefly dated when they were both students at Stanford Law School, and the endorsement of her home state senator, Barry Goldwater, then Mr. Conservative of the Republican Party. Attorney General Smith liked her, too. Most important, as Mr. Reagan later said, he was "charmed" by Judge O'Connor. When he interviewed her in the White House, they spent much of the time discussing horses and Judge O'Connor's childhood on an Arizona ranch. Mr. Reagan never interviewed anyone else.

Note too George W. Bush's comment to Justice O'Connor: "For an old ranching girl, you turned out pretty good."

Posted by Orrin Judd at July 7, 2005 6:22 AM