YES!
Posted on 02/04/2007 11:09:47 AM PST by SmithL
Retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor would have preferred to stay on the Supreme Court for several more years until she was ill and "really in bad shape" but stepped down because of her ailing husband.
O'Connor, 76, also says she accelerated her retirement announcement by at least a year because then-Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, who was battling thyroid cancer, told her he was not ready to leave the court, according to a Newsweek interview released Sunday.
"I was concerned about whether he had an intention to step down since his plans might have altered my own. It's hard for the nation to grapple with two (retirements) at once," she said.
After Rehnquist said he was staying, O'Connor announced her retirement in July 2005. Rehnquist died two months later.
O'Connor, who is still physically and mentally fit, said it was her plan to follow the tradition of previous justices, who enjoy lifetime appointments, to work until they die or are virtually incapacitated.
"Most of them get ill and are really in bad shape, which I would've done at the end of the day myself, I suppose, except my husband was ill and I needed to take action there," O'Connor said.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
"I wasn't sure I should do it," she said. "It was so out of my field of judging. I don't know anything about the military."
Not very much about judging either, at least at the Consitutional level.
Physically perhaps, but mentally, no. Unless you consider her decision to resign, the best thing she's done in years.
One of the rare times in recent years that she HAS made the right decision.
The country really hasn't been the same since she stepped down.
Oh why Oh why do these people think they are so indispensable?
One small step for a woman, one large step for mankind. Thank you Sandra for quitting when you did.
A sample headline from 2003:
O'Connor: U.S. must rely on foreign law; Justice says, 'The impressions we create in this world are important'
I don't miss her one tiny bit! :)
Maybe since she based some of her last decisions on international law and custom, they'll let her take a seat on the Internation Court in the Hague. She could tidy up some of the loose ends in the Milosevitch case.
Ginsberg should have retired too. She feels alone on the court of all male justices, at least that is what I heard this week.
Should have made the decision sooner by a couple of years.
I'm sure she's remained alone in a room full of men uncountable times in her life.
I'm sure she has.
Hopefully, Ginsberg will sleep through the rest of HER term.
It ticks me off that the justices do this. I think it's too much of a power trip for most of them to let go of and they hold on past the point when they are physically and/or mentally able to handle the job. It's a detriment to our country and it's crazy that it is allowed to happen.
YES!
"I was concerned about whether he had an intention to step down since his plans might have altered my own. It's hard for the nation to grapple with two (retirements) at once," she said.
A touch heavy on the self importance scale there missy.
I've heard that Rhenquist was part of convincing her to leave.
If so, thanks for that last piece of sound advice, Justice Rhenquist.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.