A Supremely Secret Proposal: Rehnquist And O’Connor’s Almost-Love

6/17/2003, WASHINGTON DC, UNITED STATES --- Supreme Court Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor (l) and Chief Justice of the United States William H. Rehnquist break ground at a ceremony for an expansion of the Supreme Court in Washington. --- Photo by Brooks Kraft/Corbis
Supreme Court Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor (L) and Chief Justice of the United States William H. Rehnquist prepare to break ground at the ceremony for an expansion of the Supreme Court in Washington, DC. (Ph... Supreme Court Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor (L) and Chief Justice of the United States William H. Rehnquist prepare to break ground at the ceremony for an expansion of the Supreme Court in Washington, DC. (Photo by Brooks Kraft LLC/Corbis via Getty Images) MORE LESS
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The late Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist carried a torch for fellow Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O’Connor when the two were in college, even proposing to her in secret.

According to a Wednesday NPR report, though O’Connor turned him down, the two remained friends and Rehnquist is even believed to have floated her name to President Ronald Reagan when a vacancy opened up on the Supreme Court.

“It was just an amazing accident of history that my mom and her friend and law school classmate ended up on the Supreme Court together,” O’Connor’s son Jay told NPR. “Not only did they have a wonderful working relationship for over 25 years on the court they had a wonderful friendship their entire life.”

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  1. it’s a cute story, but it’s indicative of a real problem in the Supreme Court – everyone comes from the same schools and the same region of the country. We need to install term limits – 18 or 20 years – and each justice needs to represent a geographic region of the country. I’d like to see it expand to 13 – not because of court packing, but so that each District Court can have a representative on the Supreme Court. We are a diverse country, and our highest court needs to have experience and philosophies from places other than the Northeast.

    ETA: I just read they both went to Stanford. So I may be dumb, but I still think they need more regional diversity on the Court, and I don’t like it that two sitting justices went to school together. But sorry for being ignorant about their backgrounds.

  2. Neither O’Connor nor Rehnquist had much to do with the north-east.

    Examples aside, I agree with your larger point.

  3. Funny, I don’t think anecdotes of Barf’s youthful quests will wear as well in time. The stench is already pretty odious.

  4. Remember the weird robes with epaulettes that William Rhenquist chose to wear for the bullshit political theater Clinton Impeachment? Sort of like Ryan Zinke flying his personal flag when he is at his office.

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