Fold, Spindle, Mutilate

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03/10/2006:

NPR's Nina Totenberg aired an amazing story this morning about a talk that just-resigned Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor gave at Georgetown University. The first woman to serve on the High Court wouldn't allow her actual words to be broadcast, and that's a shame, because -- based on Totenberg's report -- every American needs to hear what she said. The Reagan appointee who became a moderate and an American icon -- Bush v. Gore notwithstanding -- all but named names in thinly veiled attacks on former House majority leader Tom DeLay and Texas Sen. John Cornyn, and ended with a stunning warning.

O'Connor told her Georgetown audience that judges can make presidents, Congress and governors "really really mad," and that if judges don't make people angry, they aren't doing their job. But she said judicial effectiveness is "premised on the notion that we won't be subject to retaliation for our judicial acts." While hailing the American system of rights and privileges, she noted that these don't protect the judiciary, that "people do":

Listen here.

Read some of the transcript here.

Replies: 9 Comments

I check with other people trying to get the RSS feed to work for this site, and I get mixed results from it's you, to it's your browser. Can anyone confirm the problem?

Shycon said @ 05/31/2006 06:17 PM EDT

I can't seem to get my RSS feed for this blog to work. Is it me or the site?

Shycon said @ 05/30/2006 02:34 PM EDT

A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the minute it begins to rain. - Mark Twain

Linkanator said @ 05/29/2006 02:42 PM EDT

Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is serious.Brendan Gill

OpenMLS said @ 05/26/2006 08:11 PM EDT

All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind. - Aristotle

OpenMLS said @ 05/23/2006 04:12 PM EDT

What we have to do is to be forever curiously testing new opinions and courting new impressions. Walter Pater (1839 - 1894), 1873

OpenMLS said @ 05/17/2006 08:03 PM EDT

The word 'politics' is derived from the word 'poly', meaning 'many', and the word 'ticks', meaning 'blood sucking parasites'. - Larry Hardiman

OpenMLS said @ 05/11/2006 10:10 PM EDT

Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish. - Albert Einstein

Vacation Rentals by Owner said @ 05/04/2006 09:21 PM EDT

To err is human,,, well you know the rest.

OpenMLS said @ 05/04/2006 03:10 PM EDT

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