newsweekly broke the story that on election night, john o'connor, her husband, was watching tv.first it looked like al gore was going to win. he said this is terrible. we wanted to re-sign, and so, this story got in the papers and actually i broke the story. i didn't do the reporting, but i wrote the story. and so, that became she voted for bush so that her husband could resign. if the exact opposite. she told her family that once he won, they couldn't respond because it would look bad. it would look like she voted for bush just so they could resign, so it basically trapped her on the court for another five years before she was able to resign. >> and the love story between us both in all the way through the book you come back to it in several places. >> they would stand up and sandra was interesting about this, justice o'connor, interesting about this. she was very sociable, yes. she was the most sociable justice in history. that may be a low bar, but she was always in the social pages. and why? partly because she wanted to, but if john was a great dancer and storyteller and gav

she had touted strength in john o'connor. he is always there and supportive, was never jealous, but rather celebrated all of them and that is a great comfort. i did not appreciate how important that is and you can't do it alone. she could have done a lot. i don't think she could've done as much without john. not having raised a beautiful and successful family that she has. the not an entire family of clerks and an entire grateful nation without johns support. >> very well said. thank you for acknowledging john o'connor. last word in the super of discussion is to you. where did justice o'connor's personal and professional greatness come from? >> her upbringing, her intellect, her courage, her grit, her humility and her family, she loved her family, talked about them fondly in not just her personal family, but her clerk family and she talked about meeting their children and wanted to know who we would get engaged to. she took a real interest in people and that is part of what made her great. >> for further illuminating and brin

and we were looking for love letters because john o'connor and sandra o'connor had a great marriage. a true life long loving romance. and we're going through the papers. there aren't any love letters. but we went over to her chambers at the supreme court and her secretary took us down to storage closet and there was a box marked correspondent. i asked jay can we look in there? he said okay. and there were love letters between john and sandra. wonderful love letters which are in the book. but there were also 14 love letters from william rehnquist to sandra day. they were classmates. he was probably number one in the class. he was sort of the acknowledged. they went out first year. the story always was, the story they told always was well we went to the move yzies a few ti. it was more than. that. >> double features. >> yes. and in bill rehnquist third year he got a job as supreme court clerk with justice stevens and with other justice jackson. and he was lonely. he started writing sandra. and remembering their romance and long about letter seven he said, sand yishgs wiy, will you? whe

she had strengthened john o'connor. he is always there and supportive, was never jealous, but rather celebrated all of them and that is a great comfort. i did not appreciate how important that is and you can't do it alone. she could have done a lot, i don't think she could. [inaudible] >> very well said. thank you for acknowledging john o'connor. where did justice o'connor's personal and professional greatness come from? >> i think from her upbringing, her humility and her family, she loved her family, talked about them fondly and in not just her personal family, but her clerk family and she talked fondly about her grand clerks, about meeting their children and wanted to know who we would get engaged to. she took a real interest in people and that is part of what made her great. >> for further illuminating and bringing to life justice o'connor, please thank our panelists. [applause]

let's not be remiss that she had a tower of strength in john o'connor. john was steadfast.he was always there. always supportive. was never jealous of her extraordinary achievements but rather celebrated all of them. i never heard a cross word from either of them. that's a great comfort. i didn't appreciate how important that is when i was 26 years old now that we are in families and have children, we understand what source of strength that is. you can't do it alone in this world. i frankly -- she could have done a lot. but i don't think she could have done as much without john, certainly with not having raised a beautiful and successful family she has and built up a family of clerks and an entire grateful nation without john's support. >> very well said. [ applause ] thank you for acknowledging john o'connor's central role. the last word in this superb discussion is to you. where did justice o'connor's personal and professional greatness come from? >> her upbringing, her intellect, her grit, her courage, her humility and her family. she loved her family, talked about them

o'connor. please welcome the executive director of the ronald reagan presidential foundation and institute, john heubusch. >> the first panel, i just want to say i covered the court. i started covering the court in 1999, so i had the joy and privilege of covering sandra day o'connor's time on the court. to my far left is evan thomas, author of 10 books including a biography of sandra day o'connor. to his immediate right, jay o'connor, on the board of the civics project justice o'connor, transformational civics project she brought to children in this country, and to my immediate left, edwin meese iii, he served as attorney general of the u.s. from 1985-1988. please join me in welcome the -- welcoming this extraordinary panel. [applause] i have the absolute joy of setting the table for the rest of the day and getting a sense of what it was like through the early arc of justice o'connor's career, which brought her to the attention of president reagan, and then the world. we are going to try to break it down for you in the coming hour, and start by talking about her outstanding biography in arizona,

and then when john o'connor became ill, how she dealt with that. just whatever life brought her way, she just did it. that was her attitude. >> part of her background was being raised, in part, on a big -- several hundred -- a couple hundred thousand acre cattle ranch in arizona. part of the growing up was no electricity, no running water. she went to school on the west coast in stanford. the two of you are from decidedly different environments, new york city, brooklyn, so forth. and were educated on the east. does that make any difference or would it have made any difference? >> it makes a difference, everyone brings his or her life experience to bear. but i think sandra's attitude since her childhood was, she can do it. and when she went out for it the roadups, she rode with the cowboys and one of them said she wasn't the rough and rugged type, but she worked with us well in the canyons. she held her own, and that's what she did at every stage of her career. she held her own. >> both of you broke many barriers, and in many respects each of you we

bush is looking for a moderate individual to replace sandra day o'connor and at this point john robertshis name from the rob and jim reagan years had not become public any built up a reputation as a moderate to rest on the d.c. circuit and had represented all manner of clients in private practice and he was an ideal candidate for an associate judge and he was only 50. he gets name to that but everybody is thinking chief justice has thyroid cancer and he will probably have to step down soon and president bush was thinking maybe possibly elevate justice coley, possibly look for and more seasoned jurors for that position. what happens in the interim before justice cleo does die on september 3 is hurricane katrina happens in many of you will remember that we have hundreds, more than a thousand people end up dying in the gulf region, president bush is criticized for the federal government involvement in trying to solve the problems many blacks who were dying suddenly without their homes so the administration was in battle when the chief justice dies. by this point john roberts put on a reall

john, the nicest man in the world, many rest in peace. his book, six amendments had some disagreements with some of the decisions o'connor had made. i thought i had a spooked scoop. being a giant journalist, i was of course relentless. i leaned on just a stephens. finally he looked at me and said, linda, she never gave us any trouble. at all. about anything. i thought to myself, she was the perfect first. she never gave them any trouble that they knew of. >> actually, that makes her great today >> i wonder, kathleen and ruth and meryl, you all knew her for an extended -- have known her for an extended period of time when she was on the court and off. when she was first on the court. that is kind of a huge span of years to observe someone. how did she do that? she was not a shrinking today -- at all. yet, just a steven said she never gave them any trouble, as i said, that he knew of. i am sure she gave him plenty of trouble. he just did not know it. meryl, you want to take a whack? >> first of all, she was relentlessly charming. she charmed everyone. i was at an event with her and my mom who was the veteran new yorker came. she sai

john paul stevens the nicest man in the world. may he rest in peace. and his book, "six amendments" had some disagreements with some of the decisions o'connor had made and i thought i had a scoop. and being a journalist i am of course relentless so i was leaning on justice stevens to say something critical of justice o'connor. and finally, he looked at me and he said, linda, she never gave us any trouble. [ laughter ] at all. about anything. and i thought to myself, she was the perfect first. >> she never gave them any trouble that they knew of. [ laughter ] >> actually, that makes her the perfect first. >> i wonder, kathleen, and ruth, and meryl, you all knew her for an extended -- have known her for an extended period of time when she was on the court and off and when she was first on the court. as a kind of a huge span of years to observe someone, how did she do that? i mean, she was not a shrinking violet at all. and yet, justice stevens said she never gave them any trouble, as i said, that he knew of. i'm sure she gave him plenty of trouble but he just didn't know it. meryl, you want to take a whack? >> well, first of all she was relentlessly charm