Sandra Day O'Connor "Pleased" With Sotomayor Nomination, Criticizes The Term "Activist Judge" (VIDEO)

Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was a guest on the "Today Show' this morning to discuss her new children's book. However, matters quickly turned to the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor.

Meredith Vieira noted that when O'Connor had stepped down from the bench she was hoping to be replaced by another woman, and was disappointed when that did not happen. O'Connor explained why she was "pleased" with Sotomayor's nomination.

Of course I'm pleased that we will have another woman on the court. I do think it's important not to just have one. Our nearest neighbor Canada also has a court of nine members and in Canada there's a woman chief justice and there are four women all told... About half of all law graduates today are women, and we have a tremendous number of qualified women in the country who are serving as lawyers and they ought to be represented on the Court.

She told Vieira that Sotomayor was in for a rough time, calling the nomination process "miserable."

O'Connor also criticized the term "activist judge," saying she "doesn't think the public understands what's meant by it." Politicians use it to accuse judges of trying to be legislators, but O'Connor pointed out the problem with trying to make such a clear-cut distinction between a judge and legislator is that "at the appellate level, and the Supreme Court is the top at the appellate level, rulings of the court do become binding law. And so it's a little hard to talk in terms of who's an activist."

Watch the interview below.

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Comments

[AnnoyedCanuck]

Interesting that she mentions Canada and its judiciary.

What she doesn't say is that Canada has had its own conflict about an 'activist judiciary' and 'legislating from the bench'. Canada only got its own constitution 27 years ago (before that it was like Britain, with unwritten constitutional precedents and the original act of the British Parliament that established its autonomy as a sovereign country).

There was a great fear when the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms was written in 1982 that the judiciary, which adjudicated Charter legal cases, would usurp the rights of the elected Parliament to create laws.

A generation later, the constroversy has mostly faded away. The Supreme Court of Canada has not taken away the rights of Parliament, and Charter challenges in the courts have been judged cautiously and conservatively. On the whole, constitutional change and the new powers of the Supreme Court have worked out well.

[LeeCalif]

This woman made sure bush became president. She is a stain on this country.

[nunzia]

LeeCalif - absolutely right!

[gonbald]

you called that one correct.

[OkieMon]

this woman really needs to understand the havoc she has brought upon tens of millions of people in the US and world-wide­.......has any other woman in history caused such pain?????

[Indie2008]

Ah! What would she know about it?-- I like my supreme court expertise from a thinkin' man like Rushbo!

[brynnrose thorn]

I've seen several comments here saying that SDO betrayed us with her vote for Bush in 2000. It has been my contention that that is why she stepped down, not to attend to "family matters." We'll probably never know if I'm right or not, but I'll always believe she could not continue to sit on the SC knowing what a huge mistake she made.

[nunzia]

You're entitled to your delusion, brynnrose.

[hangdogit]

The term "activist judge" is right-wing code for opposition to our Constitutional system of an independent judiciary. News Flash for the GOP: In 1819, the Supreme Court ruled that it can rule an act of Congress unconstituional. The GOP talks about judges being an umpire -- but not changing the rule-book. But guess what. By overruling an act of Congress, the court is making (or more likely, preventing, a law) -- but establishing a nationwide legal rule.

[Velocitor]

Isn't she ashamed to be making these kind of statements? Her vote in Bush v. Gore adjudicated the Presidency to "W" -a fact which even she seems to regret...

[laceyrobb]

She looks like Betty White.....

[Bulbul]

Yes, but when I added to mine a couple of seconds ago, to say White was and still a beauty they chucked mine...
Go figure...

[Bulbul]

For a brief moment ,before I read the headlines, I thought it was Betty White....
But of course, White was and still is a drop dead georgeous lady ! It that is allowed to say about a senior lady....

[lmthp]

Why has HuffPo removed my posts on this thread (plus one still pending)? Aside from a couple of typos these posts have not violated any of HuffPo's rules. This has happened several times before and is VERY annoying - not to mention unfair.

[dubster]

I sympathize with you. you have no idea how many of my posts don't get posted and they don't even violate the rules. what gets me more peeved when i think about it is that they don't post mine, but they have the gall to post some radical fringe conservative's views.

we'll see if they even post this.

[ebroadcast]

So, I presume that the GOP is now going to call O'Connor's statements sexist?

[IDIOTA]

Sandra Day O'Connor and Sonia Sotomayor both embody brilliance. O'Connor graduated from college at 20 years of age and later graduated 3rd in her class at Stanford Law when she was just a bit older (Rehnquist graduated first in her class). Sotomayor was exceptional at Princeton, in spite of her lag behind students better prepared than she. Those who admitted her recognized that she would succeed, and she did. Based on the wiki information that I have read, it seems that Sotomayor's positions are centrist, one might say conservative. Sotomayor says that she is the perfect affirmative action baby, and that is so, for she has proven that giving a talented, disadvantaged youth access to the finest institutions of learning can yield excellent results that benefit her and society as a whole. Sotomayor, if confirmed, will continue a process that began with O'Connor, one which erodes untenable notions about women and their judgment. So, even though I am disappointed with O'Connor's decision in 2000, I still respect her for publicly supporting Sotomayor's selection. It's sound.

[IDIOTA]

I used to admire O'Connor. Hers was a compelling story.

[nellie]

I did, too, until Bush v Gore.

[rabiddog6708]

She is one of the 5 who are blamed for giving us Bu$h as POTUS. She was even heard remarking that she wanted to retire but would not do so if Gore was elected...­..she wanted to retire under a Repub President.

[LooktotheLeft]

Thanks for weighing in Justice "Give us Bush first and give us Samuel Alito second" O'Connor. Now, f.u. and the horse you rode in on

[Daniel Torluemke]

I knew that the Republican claim about "activists judges" was nonsense.