SDO'C

Retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, First Woman Supreme Court Justice, came to speak at NYU today on the topic of judicial independence.* She's a terrific speaker, good sense of humor, a pleasure and an inspiration to see and hear. As SKP and I later agreed, in comparison to Justices Scalia, Kennedy, and Breyer (who have also come to NYU during our tenure there), she is bigger than her ego, and that is a beautiful thing. I was glad to hear that Chief Justice Roberts is tremendously capable, in her opinion. He had advocated 35+ cases before the Supreme Court while she was a Justice, and she said that he was the best advocate of any she'd seen. She is, therefore, hopeful about the future with him at the helm. I really wish I'd taken advantage of being in DC while I lived there and gone to see more oral arguments before the Court.



It's not a great picture, but there she is, along with Professor Oscar Chase, her interlocutor.

At about 5:55pm, 5 minutes before the event was scheduled to end, one of her comments received long and loud applause. After it died down a bit Professor Chase said that he wasn't going to take that as a cue to finish, and there was something else he'd been wanting to ask her, and she flat-out interrupted him, saying, "Don't you think it's time we stopped?" or something like that. He smiled graciously and said, "Court is adjourned!" We all laughed, and clapped some more, and it was over. It's what I would imagine being around the Queen of England is like. You don't interrupt her; she interrupts you. When she's done, you're done. But it also said something to me that she was ready to be done, and probably felt the audience was too. Most speakers let only the clock shut them up.

Thanks for coming by, Your Honor! We were glad to have you.

. . .

*The event was a dedication of the Dwight D. Opperman Institute of Judicial Administration at NYU.