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Justice Sandra Day O’Connor Receives Thayer Award

Categories: Thayer Award, Events & Awards

A personage of great distinction, Sandra Day O’Connor has proved herself an American citizen of the finest kind through her extraordinary lifetime devoted to public service. Her steady determination, her deep wisdom, her wholesome pragmatism, and her refusal to be the slave of any ideology have informed every aspect of her professional life.

As an Arizona assistant attorney general, senator, and judge, she made an indelible mark on the legal history of her native state, and a brilliant one it was. Then, as the first female Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, she has done the same thing, but now on the national scale and for nearly a quarter century.

The superb accomplishments of this daughter of the Nation’s southwest have earned her a permanent place in the pantheon of American jurists, and she is a living exemplification of the ideals expressed in West Point’s motto—Duty, Honor, Country. Accordingly, the Association of Graduates is pleased to present the 2005 West Point Sylvanus Thayer Award to Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.

Article

The West Point Sylvanus Thayer Award for 2005 was presented to Supreme Court Associate Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on a typical autumn afternoon at West Point on Thursday, 20 October 2005. Justice O’Connor politely declined offers of private or military air transport and arrived by commercial air with her husband, John J. O’Connor, a former Army attorney whom she met while they both were working on the Stanford Law Review. The Dean and previous head of the Department of Law, BG Pat Finnegan ’71, and COL (Ret.) John Calabro ’68, WPAOG Vice President for Alumni Support, escorted the O’Connors from the Newark Airport to West Point.

They had lunch with the Superintendent and then Justice O’Connor spoke to an upper-level Constitutional Law class, members of the Margaret Corbin Forum (a women’s discussion group), and other interested individuals in the Law community. She began with a short summary of a day in the life of a Supreme Court Justice, including how the justices review their cases, divide the work, and ultimately make and write the decisions. She emphasized that much of the communicating amongst the justices is done in writing and that she is often required to read approximately 1,500 pages in a single day.

After her presentation, Justice O’Connor answered many questions with humor and panache. When asked what she would recommend to young women who want to be successful, she responded, “Learn to read fast and write well! If you can take a speed reading course, take it!” All appreciated her humor, frankness and enthusiasm for being at West Point. She stayed well beyond her scheduled time to meet the cadets and other attendees and have pictures taken with them before departing for the West Point Club.

The reception was very low-key, at the request of Justice O’Connor, and she never did make it as far as the window area in the ballroom where the various flags were arrayed to provide a backdrop for the many professional and amateur photographers in attendance. After stopping briefly in the foyer to speak to some guests, she then was surrounded near a table offering a humble basket of pretzels and only had progressed as far as the middle of the dance floor before it was time to move to The Plain for the cadet review. Although the morning had been somewhat overcast, the sun came out in force for the 5 p.m. ceremony. The full brigade review was impressively conducted, and Justice O’Connor trooped the line standing in the jeep marked “USMA 6.” But there was a bit of a chill in the air by the time the review was over, and an intrepid few made a prohibited dash across the manicured grass of The Plain rather than take the indirect route around the circumference.

While the Corps filled five wings of the mess hall, guests filled the sixth wing accessed via the main entrance. The mandatory Thursday evening meal is now “steak night,” and the two cadets assigned to each guest table were often the gracious beneficiaries of any leftover main course. Once the meal was completed and pots of coffee were presented to accompany dessert, the Superintendent welcomed Justice O’Connor and introduced the AOG chairman, Tom Dyer ’67. After presenting some history of the Thayer Award, he praised Justice O’Connor for her long service to the nation, made the formal presentation of the West Point Sylvanus Thayer Award, and relinquished the podium to her. Justice O’Connor also received, from Cadet First Captain Stephanie Hightower, a mounted cadet saber and scabbard.

Although she had served as a civilian Quartermaster attorney in Frankfurt while her husband was stationed there with the Judge Advocate General Corps, she admitted that, among the impressive list of past Thayer Award recipients, even Bob Hope had more military experience than she. Remarking that all the cadets now in the Corps had been appointed after 9 September 2001, Justice O’Connor then introduced the subject of the role of law in countering terrorism with a skeptical reference to the Roman adage that “in time of war the law is silent.” What law governs the treatment of terrorist suspects? The Geneva Convention applies to traditional conflicts between sovereign states, not to conflicts with international organizations of terrorists. It is up to the executive and legislative branches to confirm what rules apply to whom and where. Needed are clearer rules that also affirm our values as a nation. She noted that the Supreme Court treads cautiously and only has made limited decisions on due process in cases brought on behalf of American citizens incarcerated for extended periods as enemy combatants and held in areas wholly controlled by the United States.

She admitted that our nation has placed an enormous burden on our armed forces to be “our soldiers and our statesmen, …our combatants and our conscience” while providing limited guidance. The military faces challenges, unlike any in the past, to be soldiers, diplomats, peacekeepers, and nation builders as well. Justice O’Connor concluded by expressing her deep appreciation.

“May I say, as someone without a military background, that we citizens are deeply grateful and appreciative for your courage and dedication. Without you, we would not long survive. God bless you, each and every one.”

The Glee Club, arrayed in the balcony over the newer main entrance to Washington Hall, with stained glass windows behind them, then gave an outstanding rendition of the Alma Mater. After the final benediction and dismissal of the Corps of Cadets by the First Captain, the O’Connors returned to Quarters 100 to spend the night before a very early wakeup call for a 6 AM departure for Newark Airport and their morning flight home.

Thanks to Ms. Michelle Nadeau-Schaff, Director, Student Success Course, Center for Enhanced Performance, and Officer in Charge, Margaret Corbin Forum, for her input regarding the afternoon presentation by Justice O’Connor.

This year’s West Point Sylvanus Thayer Award ceremonies were sponsored graciously by the law firm of Shook, Hardy & Bacon L.L.P.

/s/
Your humble servant,
J. Phoenix, Esquire

Speech

Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the United States

Upon receiving the Sylvanus Thayer Award
West Point – October 20, 2005

It is a great privilege and honor to be at West Point today. The beauty and history of this institution make it one of our nation’s most treasured places. To be here and receive the Thayer Award, and to review a Parade is the experience of a lifetime. The previous recipients have most often been people with substantial military experience, such as General Colin Powell, Senator Robert Dole, and General Douglas MacArthur. By comparison, I am merely a sideline observer. Even Bob Hope – who came here to receive the award in 1968—had more military experience than I do. As a result, West Point is making a bit of an exception in presenting the award to a mere Supreme Court Justice.

I understand that the Thayer award is supposed to be given to an “outstanding citizen of the United States whose service, accomplishments, and stature exemplify personal devotion to the ideals expressed in the West Point motto, “DUTY, HONOR, COUNTRY.” That is a wonderful and grand motto. I have been tested a bit lately on the “duty” front: As many of you know, I did my best to retire from the Supreme Court this summer. The President nominated Judge John Roberts to be my successor, and I assumed I might be trout fishing in Montana or seeing my grandchildren in Arizona on the first Monday of October, when the new term started. Then the nation learned of the sudden death of our Chief Justice, William Rehnquist. He served on the Supreme Court for 33 years in all and was a great Chief Justice. He was also a close and longtime personal friend. After the Chief Justice’s passing, the President decided that John Roberts should be asked to serve instead as the new Chief Justice. Next thing I knew I picked up the phone and there was the President, telling me the news, and saying that my retirement might have to be postponed a bit. They say your country calls sometimes, but I didn’t know they meant it called on the telephone! In any event, I am still on the bench pending confirmation of a successor. This marks the 25th year of my service on the Supreme Court. The time has gone quickly and it has been both challenging and fascinating to address our nation’s most difficult issues.

As I look out today and see all the uniforms I think of my view from the bench in our courtroom. We Justices wear uniforms of a sort—plain black robes. In earlier days advocates at our Court usually wore formal attire — a morning coat. That former practice brings to mind a story. Colonel William Colston, who was a well known attorney in Kentucky, in the last century. He was counsel for the Southern Railway System for many years and on one occasion he took the president of the company to Washington to watch Colston argue a case before the Supreme Court. While they were waiting for their case to be heard, the client walked around the building inquiring of the Court’s staff about the habits of the Justices.

One thing he learned from a Court employee was that it was the practice at the Court that every male attorney wear a vest. “In fact,” the garrulous attendant elaborated, “some of the attorneys go far beyond the rules and appeal to the vanity of the Justices by dressing in formal attire. But your lawyer is complying with the rules by wearing only a plain business suit.”

Several weeks later the ruling of the Court came down deciding the case against Colston and the Railroad. Colonel Colston immediately telephoned the company president to give him the bad news.

“Well, we lost our case,” he said.
“I know why,” was the disgruntled response.
“Why?” asked the Colonel.
“Because you weren’t dressed right,” said the president.”
“Well, by golly,” the belligerent Colonel Colston replied, “that’s a lot better reason than any they gave in the opinion.”

Each of the West Point Cadets here today joined the long grey line after 9/11. Each of you chose in the aftermath of that terrible September day to come here, to train, and to serve your country, braving the risks and the challenges of future conflicts with a shadowy, unidentified enemy and a war like no other we have seen. Your years here are marked by where you will go afterwards: Iraq, Afghanistan, or other unknown places to which the service calls you. As you head out into that future, you will face profoundly difficult choices. You will perhaps also come across the old Roman maxim, “in time of war the laws are silent.” That maxim seems almost quaint today. The Romans had no Geneva Conventions, nor did they have a JAG Corps (or for that matter, a press corps). Today, law and war seem inseparable. But there is still some truth to that old saying, because to the extent that there is a law of war, it is always the law of the last war. So there is some tension there. Today, this tension is made most clear when we talk about how the United States treats its prisoners in the war on terror. What law governs the detention and interrogation of terrorist suspects? And how are you to know what standards apply? What does your duty demand? What does your honor demand? And what does your country demand? It is hard enough to answer the first two questions, but harder still when the nation’s elected leaders are silent about the last.

The Geneva Conventions and their Protocols were not made for conflicts between a state and an international terrorist network. For the most part, they were drafted with traditional armies of nation-states in mind. Some have said that we need to rethink these Conventions and amend them. But that is a daunting process and takes many years. And what are soldiers meant to do in the meantime? For many years, the Conventions have set the basic ground rules for the U.S. armed forces in matters related to the treatment of prisoners. The Army has devoted a great deal of effort to implementing and specifying the standards set out in the Conventions in its Field Manuals and manuals about intelligence interrogation. But no one has yet written the book for the rules that apply when the Geneva Conventions do not. That is a very difficult situation. And there has been a lot of confusion about what rules apply to whom, and where.

As a result, military personnel from the front lines in Iraq have reported that they do not know what rules apply, and that they have not received clear guidelines from their superior officers. One: Some of their superior officers are saying that they were not able to get clear guidelines from people higher up in the chain of command. Two: This is clearly not a good situation. When soldiers are being told to go out and get intelligence, but not told the limits on how they may do so, they may overstep the bounds. That in turn may lead to both legal and diplomatic difficulties. And if our military is not treating prisoners of war “properly,” that may also increase the dangers to US soldiers if they are captured by the enemy. Often it is the low–ranking soldiers that are blamed for the abuses. They, of course, have to take responsibility for their own actions, but those that would lead them also need to take responsibility. Finally, it seems to me we need a clear set of rules to reaffirm our values as a nation. This is crucial in the ongoing war of ideas. We have to demonstrate two things in particular: First, this country believes in protecting the basic humanity of all people, and that includes even our adversaries. Second, we will not stoop to the atrocities and inhumane tactics of some of our adversaries.

But where will we get specific guidance? Our Supreme Court has said very little about what the government may and may not do to people captured by US forces on the battlefield. The Supreme Court takes cases that have arisen in the lower courts, which are often decided some years after the events being litigated. In a case in 2003 called Hamdi, three, we said that US citizens who are being held on US soil as enemy combatants have to be given some minimal due process of law. But we were cautious about putting too much of a burden on the military, and deciding too much. So the command of that case is modest. The military must give citizens who are being detained—not at the moment they are captured on the battlefield, but later, when the military makes the decision to hold onto them—a “meaningful opportunity” to challenge the factual basis for their detention. It must tell them why they are being held, and give them a fair opportunity to contest the facts before an impartial adjudicator. We did not decide if this process could be achieved through a military tribunal. We simply said that there has to be some way for a US citizen who is being indefinitely detained to have some outside review—a second look if you will.

In another case that we decided at the same time, called Rasul, four: we said even less. Rasul held that detainees held as enemy combatants at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base could bring an action in federal courts challenging the legality of their detention. This also was a narrow decision. It said only that in a place like Guantanamo, which is under the “complete jurisdiction and control” of the United States, prisoners who are being held indefinitely can bring a challenge to their detention. But we said nothing about what kinds of claims will succeed once the detainees get to federal court.

These were limited steps and decisions. Some criticized the Court for doing too much. But the Court was bound by the Constitution and by the historical precedents of the Court to do no less. Some criticized the Court for doing too little. But the Court is naturally reluctant to rule more broadly than necessary. The Court is only one branch of government, and it cannot, and should not, give broad answers to the difficult policy questions that face our nation today.

So the Supreme Court treads cautiously. One of the architectural features of the Supreme Court are the small bronze turtles that hold up the lampposts in our courtyards. They symbolize the pace of justice: slow but steady. And that is the nature of our duty, our honor, and our service to country, as members of the Supreme Court. We move slowly, but steadily, under the light shed by our Constitution. Sometimes that light does not illuminate very much. It is an old document—and it is very short. But with good reason: It is designed primarily not to govern the people, but to allow the people to govern themselves.

We guard the ground rules, so that the people, through their elected representatives, can run the country. This is where we expect Congress to step in. But it has done surprisingly little to date to clarify United States policy towards prisoners in the war on terror. That may be changing, of course. The Senate recently voted to insert an amendment into a military spending bill to make the US policy on interrogations clear. The Bill would establish that it is the same as in the U.S. Army Field Manual on Intelligence Interrogation. The Bill also states that this country will not engage in cruel and degrading treatment of prisoners under any circumstances. It is not my place to express views about the merits of this or any other legislation, but I think it is not too much to say that I believe some clarity from Congress and the President would be welcomed by our armed forces.

Justice Brandeis once said, “in most matters it is more important that the applicable rule of law be settled than that it be settled right.”Five: That statement is true in many circumstances. But this is not one of them. Here, it is important that the law be settled, and that it be settled right. So perhaps Congress will continue to try to get the law right, and, from time to time, these kinds of questions will end up back before the federal courts.

Insofar as the courts have not delimited with clarity the standards and the limits, it is more likely that the other branches will step in and make the political choices that at the end of the day in their application may return to the courts in a different form—but it takes years for most of these matters to be resolved.

In the meantime, the nation has placed an enormous burden upon our Armed Forces. We have asked you to be our soldiers and our statesmen, to be our combatants and our conscience. This burden has been placed upon you with only limited guidance. But the history and honor of this institution suggests that if anyone can bear this responsibility, it is the Corps of Cadets, and your previous graduates. This institution has been producing our Nation’s military leaders for more than 200 years. It has done so during times of peace and times of war. It has always done so with skill and distinction. We are facing military challenges today unlike any in the past. Our nation will rely on you new young military leaders to do as you have done in the past—to defend our nation here and abroad, to conduct yourselves honorably with or without specific guidelines, and to enable our nation to survive in some of the most challenging times we have faced. Our military personnel have had to become more than soldiers. Now they are our diplomats, our peacekeepers, our nation builders as well. There is much to do and no blueprints for doing it.

May I say as someone without a military background that we citizens are deeply grateful and appreciative for your courage and dedication. Without you, we would not long survive.

May God bless you—each and every one.

Endnotes

1See Final Report of the Independent Panel to Review DoD Detention Operations (“The Schlesinger Report”) (August 2004), pp. 13–14; Human Rights Watch, Leadership Failure: Firsthand Accounts of Torture of Iraqi Detainees by the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, Vol. 17, No. 3 (Sept. 2005); Charles Babington & Shailagh Murray, Senate Supports Interrogation Limits, Washington Post (Oct. 6, 2004) A1.
2Human Rights Watch, supra.
3Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, 542 U. S. 507 (2004).
4Rasul v. Bush, 542 U. S. 466 (2004).
5Burnet v. Coronado Oil & Gas Co., 285 U.S. 393, 406 (1932) (Brandeis, J., dissenting).

Biography

Born on March 26, 1930, in El Paso, Texas, Sandra Day spent her early childhood in southern Arizona on the Lazy-B Cattle ranch, which was owned by her parents, Harry and Ada Mae Day. Upon reaching school age, she was sent by her parents to El Paso where she stayed with her grandmother while attending a private academy for girls.

After graduating from high school, Sandra Day attended Stanford University, and in 1950 she received a B.A. in Economics, magna cum laude. Having chosen to continue at Stanford for a law degree, she achieved it in two years rather than the customary three and graduated third in class of 102. It was during her work as editor on the Stanford Law Review that she met John Jay O’Connor III, a fellow student. They were married after his graduation from law school, which came a year after hers, and soon found themselves in Frankfurt, Germany, with John now an officer in the Judge Advocate General Corps and Sandra serving as a civilian lawyer for the Quartermaster Corps. Then, upon their return to the United States in 1957, the couple settled in Phoenix, Arizona.

Sandra Day O’Connor served as an Arizona assistant attorney general from 1965 to 1969, when she was appointed to a vacancy in the Arizona Senate. She successfully defended her senate seat twice and eventually became the Senate’s majority leader. In 1974 she ran for and won a position as a trial judge in the Maricopa County Superior Court. which she held until she was appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals in 1979. Less than two years later, on July 7, 1981 President Ronald Reagan nominated her to the United States Supreme Court, and in September of the same year she became the Court’s 102nd justice and its first female member.

During her time on the Court, Justice O’Connor approached each case as an individual entity and sought always to arrive at a practical conclusion. She was a consummate compromiser who also became noted for concurrences that narrowed the scope of Supreme Court rulings. Her votes were generally conservative, but she frequently surprised observers with her political independence, and during her tenure she often cast the swing vote on a court sharply divided over issues such as affirmative action and abortion.

In her opinions on affirmative action, she has endorsed such measures only if “narrowly tailored” to correct a demonstrated wrong, but not otherwise. In a landmark 1989 opinion, City of Richmond v. J. A. Croson Co., O’Connor’s opinion for the Court concluded that government programs setting aside a fixed percentage of public contracts for minority businesses violate equal protection. On the polarizing issue of abortion, O’Connor searched for a middle ground in a series of decisions in the 1980s and ultimately found one in Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey (1992). Here, O’Connor and Justice Anthony Kennedy joined a controversial plurality opinion by Justice Souter that sharply criticized the constitutional foundation for&–yet declined to overturn–the Court’s original 1973 recognition of the right to abortion.

Among O’Connor’s other noted opinions are those dealing with issues of religious freedom. A concurring opinion she wrote in Lynch v. Donnelly (1984) on the constitutionality of a government-sponsored nativity scene effectively set the legal standard for determining when such displays violate the Constitution’s prohibition on government establishment of religion. A year later, another O’Connor concurrence was important in outlining the constitutional bounds on a state-prescribed “voluntary moment of silence” for school children. According to O’Connor, the law in question was unconstitutional because it aimed to encourage prayer, but it might have passed muster had it not favored “the child who chooses to pray … over the child who chooses to meditate or reflect.”

On July 1, 2005 Associate Justice O’Connor announced her retirement from the Supreme Court after 24 years of service on the bench.

Thayer Award

Since 1958, the West Point Association of Graduates has presented the SYLVANUS THAYER AWARD to an outstanding citizen of the United States whose service and accomplishments in the national interest exemplify personal devotion to the ideals expressed in the West Point motto, “DUTY, HONOR, COUNTRY.”
The Sylvanus Thayer Award is funded by a generous endowment from E. Doug Kenna ’45 and his wife, Jean.

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