But O’Connor refused to clarify the matter. They suggested that O’Connor’s office may have relied on that 1975 letter in drafting a reply to Conant. She may be graciously covering up for someone else in her office,” Dellinger said.Ĭourt aides noted that in 1975 the Supreme Court librarian had drafted a nearly identical response to a similar inquiry. “I find it hard to believe she actually wrote that. “There is a big difference between saying we are a religious people and we are a Christian nation.”ĭuke University law professor Walter Dellinger said he found O’Connor’s letter “absolutely shocking,” especially considering that O’Connor in her court opinions has been “very sensitive to religious diversity.” that,” said American University law professor Herman Schwartz. You would think no careful lawyer, let alone a Supreme Court justice, would sign her name to. Several law professors pointed out that O’Connor did not retract the letter itself. It was not my intention to express a personal view about the subject of the inquiry, but merely to attempt to respond appropriately to one of the many requests for information which come across my desk.” Sandra grew up branding cattle, learning to fix whatever was broken, and enjoying life on the ranch. In the beginning, the ranch did not have electricity or running water. Her parents, Harry and Ida Mae Day, owned a cattle ranch in southeastern Arizona called the Lazy B. On Wednesday, O’Connor released a brief statement: “I regret a letter that I sent to an acquaintance in response to her request for information was used in a political debate. Sandra Day OConnor was born in El Paso, Texas, on August 26, 1930. In a discussion of its ruling in favor of the church, the court opinion noted that “this is a Christian nation.” The court overturned a misdemeanor conviction against a New York church that had illegally hired an alien: specifically, an English minister to serve as its pastor. Only in 1892 does the phrase “Christian nation” appear. that the enforcement of religious belief as such is no legitimate concern of the civil government.” In the 1961 case, Justice Felix Frankfurter wrote: “Religious beliefs pervade, and religious institutions have traditionally regulated, virtually all human life.” However, it is “indisputably fundamental to our American culture. Douglas wrote: “We are religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being.” In the key passage of a 1952 case cited by O’Connor, Justice William O. The two 20th-Century cases that O’Connor cited do not even mention Christianity. The Supreme Court has never ruled or made a “holding” that the United States is a Christian nation. Legal experts said Wednesday that they find the brief letter surprising, puzzling and wrong. Conant, of Apache Junction, Ariz., distributed the letter to party activists and sponsored the resolution at the January convention.
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