"We must be ever-vigilant against those who would strong-arm the judiciary. . . It takes a lot of degeneration before a country falls into dictatorship, but we should avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings."
--Sandra Day O'Connor, Former Supreme Court Justice
UPI: "O'Connor was nominated by conservative icon President Ronald Reagan and was the first woman ever to sit on the Supreme Court. In a powerful speech at Georgetown University Thursday, reported by National Public Radio and the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, she warned that the United States was in danger of drifting towards dictatorship because of the attacks. . . O'Connor, who retired only last month after 24 years on the Supreme Court, said repeated attacks on judges for alleged liberal bias could boost an atmosphere of violence against judges. . . In her address to an audience of corporate lawyers on Thursday, O'Connor focused on former House Majority leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, for his comments during the Terry Schiavo 'right to die' case last year, The Guardian newspaper in London reported.
After the decision last March that ordered Schiavo removed from life support, DeLay said: 'The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior.'
. . . Such threats, Ms O'Connor said, 'pose a direct threat to our constitutional freedom,' and she told the lawyers in her audience: 'I want you to tune your ears to these attacks ... You have an obligation to speak up.'"
Sandra Day O'Connor Tom Delay Bush Dictatorship SOTUS Supreme Court
