Judicial Philosophy Of O'connor

As the first female justice of the United States Supreme Court. Sandra Day O'Connor' s nomination, appointment, or the cutting edge she has exposed repeatedly in the adjudication of cases, undoubtedly has drawn great public attention. In a complex environment, rather than as the criterion by ideology, O'Connor based on the law, the facts of the case and rational insights to make decision. And she always published her unique perspective when cope with a variety of problems. Study her judicial concept is of critical reference significance to understanding the thought process and influence factors of Supreme Court Justice.This paper selects one of O' Conner's representative University of Michigan series case — “Grutter v. Bollinger” legal opinions as a breakthrough point of her judicial philosophy research, based on the summary of the ruling idea, trying to analyze the logic judgment, basic principles and doctrine, make a further understanding and explanation of the moderate pragmatism of O' Conner's. Usually, Facing important cases' interpretation,we should discern facts and give jurisprudence analyses. But if we can fully restore the historical context, find the vivid personality, educational background and life experiences of the Justice behind the cases, and explore the judge's judicial idea during the process. It has no doubt to make the interpretation more complete, based on this, The article is divided into five chapters.The first chapter is an overview of O'Connor' s background. The first section reviews the O'Connor 's life journey, the second section summarizes the evaluation of the executive branch, judicial institutions, editorial, scholars and the media with different opinion.The case involves the hot issues of American racial equal rights protection, the campus has always been the camp which most likely to intensify the contradiction of affirmative action, as the "Grutter case" is under the background of higher public education, American society pays more attention to it.