Justice O’Connor Retires | WBUR and NPR - On Point with Tom Ashbrook

TODAY IS MONDAY, JULY 6, 2009

Friday, July 1, 2005 at 10:00 AM EDT

Justice O’Connor Retires

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to serve on the high court and the key swing vote in some of the nation’s highest-profile cases, announced her retirement today.

Appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981, the 75-year-old O’Connor is the first Supreme Court justice to retire since 1994, giving current U.S. President George W. Bush his first chance to name a judge.

On Point look backs at her legacy and ahead to the future of the U.S. Supreme Court with some of the country’s top legal scholars.

Guests:

Warren Ritchie, covers the Supreme Court for the Christian Science Monitor

Randy Barnett, law professor at Boston University. In 2004 he argued the medical marijuana case before the high court

Jeffrey Rosen, Professor of Law at George Washington University, legal affairs editor of The New Republic

Ronnell Anderson Jones, from 2003-2004 clerked for Justice O’Connor, visiting faculty fellow at the James E. Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona

Patrick Schiltz, founding dean and professor at the University of St. Thomas Law School, clerked for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

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