Litigation

O?Connor on Courtrooms: ?Where Fairness Trumps Strength?

By Peter Hardin

Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor (photo at right, courtesy of Kevin Lamarque /Reuters) continues to command quite a media audience.

As Gavel Grab reported earlier, O’Connor headlined a symposium Tuesday in Washington and warned that last week’s Citizens United decision  threatened a worsening spending war over state courts. She effectively issued a “polite public dissent” to the blockbuster Supreme Court decision, ABC News commented.

O’Connor’s remarks also got coverage in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and National Public Radio’s All Things Considered. That broadcast traced her concerns about judicial independence back in history, quoting O’Connor as saying:

“The founders realized there has to be someplace where being right is more important than being popular or powerful, and where fairness trumps strength. And in our country, that place is supposed to be the courtroom.”

The retired jurist said judicial independence in states will be compromised severely by Citizens United, which threw out key limits on corporate spending to support or oppose political candidates.

Full post as published by The Gavel on January 27, 2010 (boomark / email).