senator feingold mentioned the obstacles that sandra day o'connor and justice ginsburg faced when they were coming up through the legal ranks. and i know you're well aware of the strides that women have made in a 2005 speech quoting justice ginsburg. you described a 1911 student resolution at the university of pennsylvania law school. this resolution would having introduced a 25 cent per week penalty on all students without mustaches. the women who came became before you to be considered by this committee help blaze the trail. although your record stands on its own, are you also to borrow a line from isaac newton, standing on the shoulders of giants. in the course of more than two centuries, 111 justices have served on the is supreme court. only three have been women. if you are confirmed, ulgd be the fourth and for the first time in its history, three women would take their places on the bench when arguments are heard in the fall. last year at confirmation hearing for justice sotomayor, i said i was looking for three things in a supreme court justice. good judgment, humility, and the

there were chief justice -- there was a time with chief justice rehnquist and sandra day o'connor, we had a long time together to get comfortable. it is a new court. >> when i was trying jury cases, if a juror had been replaced because one was ill or something, it was just a it is a different jury. this should be a very different courts in the same way. it is stressful for us becausee we so admire our colleagues.+ i have great admiration for the3 it works. >> i saw a television program recently where someone said there should always be someone who served in the armed forces on the court. there should always be someone i think experience in other very helpful. >> all the justices, all of my colleagues, have been extraordinarily warm and welcoming.+ each one of them has offered advice. each one of them has invited me to call them with questions. i do not know if i can identify to. it depends on whether i am meeting them in the fall. there's always a question in my mind. just ask them.em in the hall, i generous in giving me time, walking me through whenever it is that i am asking about.

justice harry blackmun about sandra day o'connor, usually those things do not become evident with theustice's own words. we watch from the bench and see the dynamic opinions. it's one thing that just as prior might have mentioned if he had gone on about what it would be like to be the junior justice for those 11 years before we have the addition of justice roberts and justice alito is that he had to play a certain role on answering the door for the other justices in their private conference, bringing them coffee, taking notes. we watch how they play off each other in public, but it reveals about -- a bit about what has gone on privately. it is going to be unusual to send the have a second justice so quickly. -- suddenly have a second justice so quickly. we're all just getting used to justice sotomayor, and if things go smoothly as i believe they will for elena kagan, she will come on soon and that will be another court and lost more news for those of us who follow the justices. >> from and advocates perspective, it will change the dynamic of the argument somewhat, but the preparation

. >> the first televised once were for sandra day o'connor. i actually think there is something legitimate about them because it is the last time that you are going to see this person that has been appointed to a lifetime position. and remember justice stevens said to me, "mine were so painful." i went back to this transcript. he was approved unanimously. this is painful? when sitting in the chair, you are in the hot seat and you feel uncomfortable. i remember chief justice rehnquist, when he was up for his associate justice ship in the fall of 1971, at a fellow from arizona said he was so comforting. i get the point from the nominee's view that it is awfully tough, whether you are at the supreme court level or below, but i think for the public's appreciation and what the public should demand of a nominee who is going to go on for a lifetime appointment -- we should have hearings. >> this will mark the start of the fifth year of john roberts as chief justice. let us listen to him talking about the role of the court. >> i think the most importa

sandra day o'connor and i thought it would be appropriate if we included as part of our robes something typical of a woman, so i had many, many colars. >> i am sure we could do our work without the robes or this glorious building. but what it in part to the people that come here is the significance, the importance of what goes on here. >> it is a symbol that we are all in the business of impartial judge iing, ging, and that thine pattern was set by chief justice john marshall. they should not wear royal robes, they should not wear red robes. they should wear plain black. >> a process ggeater than ourselves. they remind us that the world we are playing is not a personal role and not a role that should have a personal agenda but one that has an institutional importance aad that that institutional importance is bigger than us. >> the first thing we do is go around the room. each justice shaking hands with every other, and that is a symbol of the work that we do. you may be temporarilymiffed because you received a spicy opinion from a colleague, but we look at each other, shake hands, and i

sandra day o'connor and ruth bader ginsburg paved the way for me and so many other women in my generationtheir pioneering lives have created boundless possibilities for women in the law. i thank them for their inspiration, and also for the personal kindnesses they have shown me and my heart goes out justice ginsburg and her family today. everyone who ever met marty ginsburg was enriched by his incredible warmth and humor and generosity, and i'm deeply saddened by his passing. mr. chairman, in law school i had the good fortune to lead has a kind of motto spoken each year at graduation. we tell the new graduates that they are ready to enter a profession devoted to those wise restraints that make us free. that phrase has always captured for me he way law and the rule of law mattered. what the rule of law does is nothing less than to secure for each of us what our constitution calls the blessings of liberty, those rights and freedoms, that promise of equality that have defined this nation since its founding and what the supreme court does is to safeguard the rule of law through a commitment t

strongly of justice o'connor's, that was the kelo decision, i found minse the same page as sandra day o'connor, i found myself at odds with what she wrote in the majority opinion in the michigan case or cases but the one i'm thinking of is when she wrote that we could perhaps go back and revisit the equal protection clause of the constitution in 25 years and maybe our society would have matured to the point where we wouldn't need to have a built in, let's say a built in diversity quotient. well, you don't correct an injustice with another injustice, mr. speaker. two wrongs don't make a right to put it in simple mother to son language or father to daughter language. two wrongs don't make a right you don't correct an injustice with another injustice. but equal opportunity, martin luther king's dream, that's consistent, logically, morally, and this bill back in conference to be reshaped to try to get the votes to get it to pass violate miss of those rational principles that i think are the purest principles of america, equal opportunity under the law this bill provides for and requires increased

sandra day o'connor and ruth bader ginsburg paved the way for me and so many other women in my generation. their pioneering lives have created boundless possibilities for women in the law. i thank them for their inspiration, and also for the personal kindnesses they have shown me and my heart goes out to justice ginsburg and her family today. everyone who ever met marty ginsburg was enriched by his incredible warmth and humor and generosity, and i'm deeply saddened by his passing. mr. chairman, in law school i had the good fortune to lead has a kind of motto spoken each year at graduation. we tell the new graduates that they are ready to enter a profession devoted to those wise restraints that make us free. that phrase has always captured for me the way law and the rule of law mattered. what the rule of law does is nothing less than to secure for each of us what our constitution calls the blessings of liberty, those rights and freedoms, that promise of equality that have defined this nation since its founding and what the supreme court does is to safeguard the rule of law through a commit