Justice Sandra Day O'Connor announces her retirement from the U.S. Supreme Court
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who last week announced her retirement from the U.S. Supreme Court, has exerted a strong influence in numerous decisions affecting public education over the past 24 years. She has been the swing vote who completed the majorities on major decisions on private school vouchers, religion in the public schools, affirmative action in college admissions, and sex discrimination in education. "It's a tremendous loss for the nation; it may be the end of moderation on the Court," says Charles C. Haynes, a senior scholar at the First Amendment Center, a nonprofit organization that advocates protection of First Amendment rights. Although she has been criticized for "parsing each case and not offering enough of a broad vision, I think her broad vision was how are we going to live and work together across our differences," he says. "She helped us to do that by taking these issues case by case." Julie Underwood, the general counsel of the National School Boards Association, agrees, noting that by her count over the past six years, Justice O'Connor was part of more Supreme Court majorities than any other justice. She was not in the majority in all cases, of course. In 1995, in
Vernonia School District v. Acton, she wrote a harsh dissent, arguing that drug testing of students violates the Fourth Amendment guarantee against unreasonable searches. The announcement of her impending retirement immediately electrified the public debate over the future of the Court, which has centered on speculation that Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, 80, who is battling thyroid cancer, may retire this summer. Advocacy groups on the right and the left have long prepared to battle over the next Court appointment.
Education WeekBy Andrew Trotter
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