She was 75 when she announced her retirement from the court in 2005. It was a decision influenced by the decline in the health of her husband, John O’Connor III, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
She then waited until the end of the term to step down, by which time her husband’s condition had deteriorated to the point that he was beyond her reach. It was a tragedy for her – and for the country.
RBG is 85…
Like inflation adjusted money, what was a moderate conservative at the time of her appointment is now a flaming liberal.
The taint of Bush V Gore will forever haunt her legacy. Especially since on election night she was heard to be upset when the media first called FL for Gore.
Two “momentous” decisions that forever tainted her legacy for me: 1) Bush v Gore and 2) Retiring at a point enabling Bush, the man she enabled to be President, to appoint her successor.
And now we see any good work she did being undone by the ultra right-wing tilt of the court.
I miss the days when even a Republican might appoint a reasonable judge.
NOTE: She “was the first woman to lead the Arizona state senate.”
Was also the last member of the Supreme Court to have run for, much less held, elected public office.
Her departure left the Court without anyone who’d ever been a candidate for the first time in its history.
Which I’m convinced had a major effect on the resulting Court to, years later, rule as it did in Citizens United.
Because a politician understands the reality of quid pro quo around campaign donations from the wealthy and connected that these JustUs’s don’t believe exist.
As usual, she is being disingenuous. She supplied a necessary vote for the predictable Bush/Cheney Regime of Awfulness in the sui generis SC case of 2000 that might have otherwise put Al Gore in the Presidency. Her reward was a retirement and conservative replacement, the terrible and retrograde Sam Alito. A rightward lurch on the SC was easily predictable, and somebody as smart as she should have expected it. She feigns shock! shock! that there is kleptocracy going on in this establishment. Not a pretty sight, indeed, to see the downstream results of the selfish and craven GOP politics that she participated in. Her memory problems may help her sleep at night.
Your point is interesting but I have no doubt this long-in-the-making right-wing court fully understood the implications in making it “legal” for corporations to be treated as persons when convenient, and shielded from “personal” responsibility the rest of the time.
Don’t fool yourself the conservative Justices understand that quid pro quo as well as any politician, it is why they voted the way they did.
Three years ago I went to a meeting of lawyers. Justice O’Connor spoke. It was clear then her memory was failing.
The stench of her Bush v. Gore decision will never go away.
She is as evil as the rest of them, just dressed up all nice like Susan Collins.
Reply to Mike in Houston who notes that RBG is 85:
And sharp as a tack.
Aging is quite idiosyncratic and reflects both genetic variables and differences in health history (diet, exercise, drug, tobacco and alcohol use, etc.). Genetics is a large and multifactorial component that is not well-understood and, of course, interacts with all the genetic components.
Edit: And note that John Paul Stevens is 98 (as the article points out) and still mentally acute as is Jimmy Carter at 94.
I’ll never forget this. Worse, she was disappointed initially because she couldn’t retire under a gore presidency. She was as partisan then as Kav is today.
O’Connor’s resignation was an act of pure political partisanship. She stated clearly that she intended to leave the Supreme Court when a Republican president would replace her. George Dubya Bush nominated the execrable sexist Samuel Alito to assume O’Connor’s seat. She betrayed women and erased her legacy by putting party over country. She can’t drop dead and go to hell soon enough.
The Judiciary’s Suze Collins…
Sandra “Taney” O’Connor.
To hell with her.
If only one of her votes mattered and could have changed the course of the country. Oh wait.
No respect for you Sandy. The slide into absolute shit started by Reagan was made permanent by the false appointment of W. You will be remembered as a craven partisan who put party over country.
Every damn time.
The neat thing about her Bush v Gore “vote” was that she purportedly allowed The Now-Dead Fat Nino to sway her, supposedly because of either his browbeating, or because she didn’t want him to give her a hard time. (At least, that’s what I think I remember reading many years ago.)
She has as much integrity as any other Rethuglican – including The Now-Dead Fat Nino, who was an “originalist” only when it suited him, i.e., allowed him to achieve the political result(s) he desired.