Honoring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H. Res. 357, Honoring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Honoring Justice O'Connor's career as a jurist with this resolution is significant as she was a pioneer for women in the legal profession.

Nominated for the Supreme Court by President Reagan and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 1981, Justice O'Connor became the 102nd Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, and its first woman member. Justice O'Connor served honorably until her retirement on January 31, 2006. Justice O'Connor retired from the bench and from public service with the same grace and dignity with which she served. Her commitment to the Constitution, to public service, and to the United States will serve as inspiration for young Americans for years to come. Her work while on the Court will continue to provide needed guidance as American law continues to evolve. Her legacy of attacking bias not only against women but against all groups through jurisprudence benefits us all.

Justice O'Connor is the product of humble beginnings. In school, Justice O'Connor worked hard, earning numerous achievements while overcoming many obstacles in her path

to success. Upon graduation, Justice O'Connor found it difficult to obtain a position with any law firm due to her gender despite having earned honors as an undergraduate and a law student at Stanford University. Undaunted, she created her own opportunities, partnering with a colleague and beginning her own firm. Shortly thereafter, Justice O'Connor placed her career on hold to become a mother. During this time, Justice O'Connor devoted herself to volunteer activities with the Arizona State Hospital, the Arizona State Bar, the Salvation Army and several local schools.

Justice O'Connor returned to practicing law after 5 years as a full- time mother and assumed a position with the Arizona Attorney General's office. In 1969, she was appointed to fill a vacancy in the Arizona State Senate and 4 years later was the first woman to serve as the chamber's majority leader. This leadership role, however, only marked the beginning of her groundbreaking professional accomplishments.

In 1974, Justice O'Connor was nominated for a judgeship position in the Maricopa County Superior Court and nominated to the Arizona Court of Appeals 5 years later. As a result of her work on the Arizona Court of Appeals President Reagan nominated her to serve on the Supreme Court. Justice O'Connor's career proves that there is no barrier to large, no challenge to great, and no position to lofty to attain for a woman of integrity, conviction and intelligence.

Justice O'Connor is among the pioneering women of our time. She stands as a testament to what a fearless spirit, a determined heart and a sharp mind can achieve in the face of bias and tradition. Today, only one woman now serves on the Supreme Court, but we now that more will follow in the footsteps of Justice O'Connor.

Although Justice O'Connor is most widely recognized for her 24 years as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, she deserves to be recognized for leading of life of humanity, of dedication to public service, and one of commitment to making our country more fair, tolerant, and a better place to live. Her lifetime of achievements in the field of law and public service will always be remembered. Our country thanks her for the example she has set.

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 357) honoring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on House Resolution 357 currently under consideration.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of this resolution which commemorates the life and career of former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor upon her retirement from the United States Supreme Court.

Justice O'Connor's 24 years on the Supreme Court capped a distinguished four-decade career of public service. Born in El Paso, Texas, on March 26, 1930, and raised in rural Arizona, O'Connor served on the Law Review at Stanford Law School and took just 2 years to finish the normal 3-year curriculum. She graduated third in a class of 102, which included former Chief Justice of the United States William H. Rehnquist.

Unable to find work at law firms that at the time refused to hire female attorneys, she became a deputy county attorney in San Mateo County, California. This was the first of many public sector jobs Justice O'Connor held throughout her career. She served as the assistant attorney general of Arizona from 1965 to 1969, and then in the Arizona State senate from 1969 to 1975. In 1973, Justice O'Connor became the first woman in any State to become the majority leader of a State senate.

She began her career as a jurist in 1975 when she was elected to become a judge in the Maricopa County Superior Court. She was subsequently appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals in 1979 and served in that capacity until President Ronald Reagan nominated her to fill the seat of former Justice Potter Stewart on August 19, 1981. The U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed Justice O'Connor on September 21, 1981, and she was sworn in 4 days later, making her the 102nd, and first female, Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

She served a decisive role in crafting the majority opinion in many important cases, but perhaps her greatest accomplishment was in serving as a role model to countless women. Indeed, at the time Justice O'Connor graduated from Stanford Law School, women comprised just 4 percent of all law school students. By 2004, women accounted for approximately half of all students enrolled in law schools.

Throughout her entire career, Justice O'Connor put public service first. Even as she announced her retirement on July 1, 2005, she agreed to serve until the President could nominate and the Senate confirm her replacement.

I would like to thank the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ginny Brown- Waite) for introducing this resolution. I urge all of my colleagues to join me in supporting it, and in wishing Justice O'Connor a happy and relaxing retirement with her husband, John.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Brown-Waite), the author of the resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Schmidt).

(Mrs. SCHMIDT asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, I yield back my time as well.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I am very proud to join my colleagues today to honor a woman who not only contributed immensely to American jurisprudence, but also showed tremendous courage and perseverance in finding her way to the top of the legal field at a time when the legal field was virtually closed to women.

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor graduated magna cum laude in 1950 with a bachelor's degree in economics from Stanford University, my alma mater. In just 2 years, instead of the usual 3 years, Justice O'Connor graduated third in her class at Stanford Law School in 1952 at a time, as the chairman has said, when only 4 percent of law school graduates were women.

Despite her impressive law school record and obvious talent, Justice O'Connor could not find a single law firm that would give her a job after graduation, but that did not deter her. She heard that San Mateo County in California, the county just to the north of my home, had once hired a female attorney and so she decided to go there in search of her first legal job, but she learned that there was not enough funding in place or a place in the office for her to work.

That did not deter her. She wrote a long letter explaining why she should be hired and offered to start work for free. She placed her desk in the same area where the secretaries sat. She got the job and before long a paid position opened up and she took it.

Justice O'Connor's perseverance did not end there. She went on to become an assistant attorney general for Arizona. She was appointed and later elected to the Arizona State senate, elected as a county judge, and appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals.

Justice O'Connor has been a leader for women in many ways. She became the first woman to serve as the majority leader of the Arizona State senate and the first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, paving the way and opening the door for the next generation of women to substantively participate in the field of law. In fact, I feel, as a lawyer myself, a debt of gratitude to Justice O'Connor for the groundbreaking path that she laid for all of us who followed.

But let us not forget that she was not only a symbol of hope for aspiring women lawyers all around the Nation, but she has also been a powerful contributor to our American jurisprudence, often the pivotal fifth vote on some of the most important issues in modern American history that came before the U.S. Supreme Court.

I strongly urge my colleagues in the House to unanimously approve this resolution honoring this extraordinary woman, and I look forward to a unanimous vote of support by the House of Representatives.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of House Resolution 357, honoring former United States Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and commend my colleague from Florida, Ms. Ginny Brown-Waite, for her

work on this legislation and Chairman Sensenbrenner for allowing this to go through.

In 1981, when Sandra Day O'Connor was unanimously confirmed to the seat previously held by my fellow Cincinnatian, Justice Potter Stewart, as the first woman Justice, it was a very different time in America. After 24 years serving our Nation, it can be said that her legacy is multifaceted: one of the most influential Justices in history; certainly one of the most powerful women in America; and a pioneer in every sense of the word.

We know she was born in El Paso to parents who owned a 198,000-acre cattle ranch in southeastern Arizona. There she learned roping and riding but also the self-reliance and determination that influenced her life. Despite her many achievements at Stanford and Stanford Law School, law review, graduating in 2 years instead of three, and third in her class of 120, no law firm would hire her because she was a woman. She turned to public service and was Arizona's assistant attorney general, the first woman majority leader of the State senate, a trial judge and an Arizona court of appeals judge before being named to the United States Supreme Court. Maybe it is good no law firm would hire her.

Although I have not always agreed with her on every decision, Justice O'Connor stood for federalism, pragmatism, compromise and interpreting, not legislating, the law. She considered each case individually on its own merits. Her hallmarks of integrity, diligence, and fairness have been woven through every task she has undertaken.

Balancing the demands of a career and family, Justice O'Connor set a positive example for women, especially young women. She once said, ``Society as a whole benefits immeasurably from a climate in which all persons, regardless of race or gender, may have the opportunity to earn respect, responsibility, advancement and remuneration based on ability.''

During Women's History Month, it is especially fitting that we honor her.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the bill introduced by the gentlelady from Florida. As a member of the Congressional Women's Caucus, I applaud Justice Sandra Day O'Connor for her leadership as the first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Appointment of Justice O'Connor added life to the women's movement, and when Justice Ginsburg was appointed, we had 2 very strong allies when these matters came before the high court. Her judicious leadership stood out when she joined Justices Souter and Kennedy in crafting a compromise to uphold Roe v. Wade in the Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision--that included the standard of limiting state regulation of abortions to the threshold of causing an ``undue burden'' on a woman's right to choose.

Justice O'Connor helped to protect affirmative action by making the swing vote in the 5-to-4 decision of Grutter v. Bollinger. This decision was a landmark that still has precedential value in terms of preserving the notion that there is not only the right to due process in the law at stake but the value of racial diversity in education.

Most recently, though, many of us on both sides of the aisle commend Justice O'Connor for her dissent in the recent Supreme Court decision of Kelo v. City of New London et. al (No. 04-108. Argued February 22, 2005--Decided June 23, 2005), in which she stated that

[a]ny property may now be taken for the benefit of another

private party, but the fallout from this decision will not be

random. The beneficiaries are likely to be those citizens

with disproportionate influence and power in the political

process, including large corporations and development firms .

. . [t]he Founders cannot have intended this perverse result.

`[T]hat alone is a just government,' wrote James Madison,

`which impartially secures to every man, whatever is his

own.'

I hope that the Court will continue this kind of sound judgment and leadership on matters of such great significance to our disadvantaged communities.

Mr. Speaker, I support this legislation, and I thank Justice O'Connor for her service to our Highest Court.