Ninety-nine to zero. That was the tally in 1981 by which the Senate made Sandra Day O’Connor the first female justice on the Supreme Court. Such a lopsided result is
What little opposition there was to O’Connor, then a little-known Arizona judge, was over her record on abortion when she had earlier served in the Arizona Senate. Anti-abortion groups rose up in alarm, complaining that Reagan was going back on the Republican platform promise to appoint judges who respect “the sanctity of innocent human life.”
WASHINGTON Ninety-nine to zero. That was the tally, unimaginable in today s hyperpolarized environment, by which the Senate in 1981 made Sandra Day O Conn.