Justice Sandra Day O’Connor memorialized in Nationwide Cathedral funeral service
Justice Sandra Day O’Connor was memorialized in a funeral service held on the Nationwide Cathedral, the place President Biden, Chief Justice John Roberts and her son Jay O’Connor spoke about her legacy.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
At present Justice Sandra Day O’Connor was laid to relaxation on the Nationwide Cathedral.
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MARIANN BUDDE: We obtain the physique of our sister, Sandra Day O’Connor, for burial.
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
President Biden delivered remarks memorializing the justice’s historic nomination.
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PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Greater than 40 years in the past, on a Wednesday in September 1981, the Senate Judiciary Committee got here to order. I used to be the rating member of that committee. And the day’s enterprise was momentous, the nomination of Sandra Day O’Connor to grow to be the primary lady in American historical past to function a Supreme Court docket justice on the US Supreme Court docket.
KELLY: O’Connor served on the Supreme Court docket for twenty-four years. After saying her retirement in 2005, John Roberts was nominated to fill a emptiness within the court docket. Roberts had labored with O’Connor’s workforce throughout her affirmation hearings when he was a younger legal professional on the Division of Justice.
CHANG: He says it was throughout this time that she impressed upon him a central maxim of her philosophy as a public servant – get it performed. And it is a lesson she bolstered within the temporary time they overlapped on the court docket.
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JOHN ROBERTS: She and I have been discussing a case in chambers. And I feel she grew uninterested in my on the one hand and however. She merely obtained up and mentioned, you simply should determine. There was impatience in her voice, however I do not assume it was solely as a result of me. She had made her personal determination in regards to the future and introduced her retirement six months earlier. I feel she was anxious to get it performed.
KELLY: Subsequent to talk was O’Connor’s youngest son, Jay. He recounted his mom’s love of studying, which he mentioned transported her to different worlds from her Arizona ranch. He mentioned that love of studying finally led her to Stanford College.
CHANG: And it is no shock that the justice was a star in class, Jay mentioned. However whereas sorting by a few of his mom’s papers, he discovered a field of report playing cards from center and highschool.
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JAY O’CONNOR: In fact, her marks have been sterling, till I used to be shocked to see one thing, a B, a scarlet B. And picture what class it was in – civics. Sandra Day O’Connor as soon as obtained a B in civics.
KELLY: Lastly, he learn from a letter that Justice O’Connor left for her sons to learn close to the top of her life. In a parting message, she wrote to them…
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O’CONNOR: (Studying) Our function in life is to assist others alongside the best way. Might you every attempt to do the identical. Our function in life is to assist others alongside the best way. What a phenomenal, highly effective and completely Sandra Day O’Connor sentiment.
CHANG: That was Jay O’Connor eulogizing his mom, Supreme Court docket Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Her funeral was at the moment on the Nationwide Cathedral in Washington.
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