Audio By Carbonatix
In an interview with George Stephanopoulos for ABC’s Good Morning America, former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor said that her native Arizona has to “put a good step forward to show that Arizona is not as a whole, a biased state.”
An excerpt from the interview’s transcript is given below.
She also pointed out that the state’s Hispanic population has been here for a loooong time. You know, like, pre-whitey. She told the former Clinton White House staffer-turned-journo that “I think as a state, we respect and admire very much our Hispanic population.”
O’Connor declined to take a stand on SB 1070, but said that “I’m sure sections of it will be tested.”
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The erstwhile supreme is 80, so she may have come of age in an Arizona that respected its Hispanic population. Hell, this state even once had a Mexican-born governor, Raul Castro, but the times they have a-changed.
Arizona is now rightfully known as a racist backwater with white supremacists such as state Senator Russell Pearce making its laws. It will take a lot to turn back the clock to a simpler time, assuming there ever was one.
STEPHANOPOULOS: I’m going to put you, have you put your state legislator hat back on. You state is in the middle of a lot of controversy over immigration. Had … you been in the state legislature, [would] you have voted for that law?
O’CONNOR: I’m not going to answer that. I don’t want to aggravate the debate in my state over that. It’s been enacted, and I think what we have to look at now is, what does Arizona do now? How do we put a good step forward to show that Arizona is not as a whole, a biased state. And that we appreciate and respect the Hispanic population in our state very much.
They’ve been part of us since long before we became a state. [Francisco Vasquez de] Coronado marched through parts of Arizona, you know, when he first came from Spain and wanted to find the seven cities of gold. So we’ve … been in contact for a long time in our state. And I think as a state, we respect and admire very much our Hispanic population.
STEPHANOPOULOS:Do you think the law is constitutional?
O’CONNOR: I’m not going to weigh in on it. I’m sure sections of it will be tested.
