A fair and impartial judiciary is a cornerstone of our system of government. Yet in recent days the judiciary has been subject to escalating attacks that threaten our nation's tradition of judicial independence. The judicial nomination and confirmation process has become a high-stakes partisan battle. Disagreement with judicial decisions has led to calls for the impeachment of federal judges and the recall of state judges. Congress has sought to influence the outcome of a single state case.

To address this challenge, Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Stephen Breyer chaired "Fair and Independent Courts: A Conference on the State of the Judiciary," a two-day event in September 2006 co-sponsored by Georgetown University Law Center and the American Law Institute. A series of recommendations were developed by the Conference participants.

Conference participants recommended an ongoing effort to achieve their advocacy goals, and so the Sandra Day O'Connor Project on the State of the Judiciary at Georgetown University Law Center was formed.

Activities past and upcoming include:

• The 2007 Sandra Day O’Connor Project Conference took place on October 17, 2007 at Georgetown University Law Center. Titled State Courts: the Debate over Judicial Elections and Judicial Selection, the invitation-only Conference attracted more than 100 lawyers, state judges and opinion leaders from the corporate, non-governmental organization and media fields for discussions on th troubling trend of highly politicized state court judicial elections, among other topics. A book of original scholarly papers was distributed as a background document for Conference attendees. The 2007 Conference is available as a webcast. The Conference was the location of the release of a survey on "Public Understanding of and Support for the Courts" conducted by the Annenberg Public Policy Center. The Conference also resulted in a set of recomendations for state court judges, lawyers, bar associations and others.

• The Sandra Day O’Connor Project facilitated Justice O’Connor’s speaking engagement at the closing plenary session of the Summer 2007 National Governors Association conference.  Her speech on judicial independence and civic education took place before the Governor of almost every U.S. state and territory.

• Under the leadership of Director Sally Rider, and with the assistance of funding from the Sandra Day O’Connor Project, The Rehnquist Center at the University of Arizona School of Law conducted conferences in Texas and Chicago using the template of the Sandra Day O'Connor Project's 2006 Conference.  Justice O’Connor spoke at both regional conferences. A third conference is scheduled to take place at Emory Law School in Atlanta on October 19, 2007, and a New York regional conference is being planned for 2008. See here for link to Atlanta conference.

Other efforts include:

• "Our Courts": The Sandra Day O'Connor Project is working with Arizona State University's Law School, IT and media experts, and authorities on intermediate and secondary school education to produce an innovative online interactive product on the Third Branch designed to supplement civics education for high school students. The "Our Courts" Project was created to help those seeking to address the evident crisis in civics education. It aims to pioneer a new pedagogic approach designed to respond to the particular learning styles of the "digital" generation. Accordingly, over the next 24 months, an online, interactive, problem-based civics learning environment, entitled "Our Courts," will be created at www.ourcourts.org. This web-based environment will be available, free of charge, to students and teachers nationwide for use in classes, enrichment programs, or extracurricular activities.
• The Project publishes articles and monographs on judicial independence;
• The Project plans and participates in education programs for associations, corporations, and other interested groups on issues relating to judicial independence.

• For more information, please contact Meryl Chertoff.