Narrator:

Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor is the first woman ever to serve on the nation’s highest court. Today, Justice O’Connor gives us her views on current issues and helps us understand the importance of the American judicial system.

Narrator:

America’s legal system has gone through many changes and has grown over the years. The fact that the American judicial establishment has remained effective for so long is a tribute to its design, even as the system becomes more complex and the number of cases has grown.

Justice O’Connor:

I grew up in a remote area in a ranch in Arizona and New Mexico and the county seat was a little town with just one lawyer and eventually, a second lawyer came and then both of them had lots of legal work to do. That was all it took — two lawyers, more work. And that’s what our experience has been in this country.

Narrator:

In many ways this is a logical result of a larger society in which the rule of law and its application is a basic element of fairness. The number of lawyers in America continues to grow.

Justice O’Connor:

The legal profession has become one that is fairly attractive to young people and we have lots of law schools, and it is true I think that when you have more lawyers, you probably have more cases filed and I think we do have more litigation than we need in this country.

Narrator:

Many American businesses support tort reform, saying that many lawsuits filed against them for violating civil or environmental laws, for example, are completely baseless and serve only to enrich the lawyers themselves. Some critics have even said that the American legal system has lost its way and needs to come back to its original purpose of creating fairness for citizens. But according to O’Connor, the number of lawyers and lawsuits is not the main issue for a healthy legal system.

Justice O’Connor:

I don’t think that having more lawyers necessarily means that courts have lost their way or that the legal system has lost its way. What you need is a fair and impartial judiciary. And that’s been our goal. I think the framers of the Constitution achieved that for the federal judges. The federal courts, by and large, have been staffed by very well-qualified judges.

Narrator:

A fair and impartial judiciary is achieved through a fair system for choosing judges. The justices that preside on the U.S. Supreme Court are appointed by the President and then confirmed by the people’s representatives in Congress after public hearings.

Justice O’Connor explains that in a country as diverse as the United States, you can find many different methods of government.

Justice O’Connor:

We have 50 states. And the great bulk of litigation occurs not in the federal courts, but in the state courts. Now the states have very different ways of selecting state judges. Some states actually elect their judges in partisan, popular elections. I don’t think there’s another country in the world that does that. And it surprises people in other countries that we would select any judges that way. I personally do not think that partisan election of judges is a good way to select judges. I think they need to be appointed based on their qualifications and on merit. I think it’s fine to have a retention election where you put the judge’s name on the ballot and you decide whether to keep that judge, yes or no — that’s fine. But the idea of having judges run and raise large sums of money is a terrible way to select judges. And so, that is a problem with our system, and I certainly don’t recommend partisan election of judges to any country that is trying to figure out how to select their judges.

Narrator:

Although it may not get very much attention, the American justice system is perhaps the most important part of the American government. It represents the foundation of the American dream — that people can improve the quality of their lives through hard work and creativity. The court system guarantees the dream through intellectual property protections, financial regulations and other guarantees for individuals’ rights. In the end, it is in all citizens’ interests to support the legal system and follow its provisions. The certainty afforded by a sound legal system means plans for the future can be made with confidence.