GOP lawmaker slams Sandra Day O'Connor as too 'undistinguished' for a statue

Just three months after her death, the Arizona House has rejected a proposal to honor the late Sandra Day O’Connor with a statue inside the U.S. Capitol.

It’s not so surprising that a coalition of Republicans and Democrats would kill the state bill. There already is a federal plan to honor O’Connor with a statue, and two of O’Connor’s three sons felt the Arizona addition would have been redundant.

What was surprising — stunning, actually — was the rant by a hard right Scottsdale Republican who used the occasion of Wednesday’s vote to absolutely flame O’Connor.

What's next, going after Ronald Reagan, the Republican president who appointed her to the U.S. Supreme Court?

Kolodin calls O'Connor 'undistinguished'

Scott O’Connor, O’Connor’s son and a former Republican Party legislative district chairman back when the party was all about winning elections, told me he wasn’t surprised at the disrespect shown to his mother.

“Nothing coming from MAGA land surprises me anymore,” he told me. “They eat their own, and everyone else is a communist.”

The sneering remarks about O'Connor came courtesy of Rep. Alexander Kolodin, R-Scottsdale, a member of the hard-right Arizona Freedom Caucus who apparently learned nothing from the fallout after Kari Lake’s sneering remarks about another Arizona icon, the late Sen. John McCain.

“Her policy driven approach to judicial decision making gave us such greatest hits as affirmative action and the prolonging of Roe’s terribly unconstitutional precedent at the federal level, when that always should have been a state issue … ,” Kolodin said on Wednesday, in urging his colleagues to vote no.

“We cannot allow the distinguished members of this body to have to suffer walking by such an undistinguished jurist when they enter here in the morning.”

Did Kolodin even read the resolution?

Apparently, the pride of Scottsdale didn’t bother to read the two-page House Joint Resolution 2002, which called for the statue to be placed in the U.S. Capitol’s Statuary Hall.

Had he done so, he would have known the “distinguished members” of the Arizona Legislature — if, indeed, there are any — would not have had to subject themselves to the apparently distasteful view of the Arizona icon who blazed trails all her life, including the one that took her East to become the first woman to serve on the United States Supreme Court.

O'Connor was never the justice: That some pretend

But then, facts don’t appear to be Kolodin’s strong suit.

The first-term legislator is perhaps best known for his frivolous, almost laughable lawsuits representing the MAGA crowd.

Among his greatest hits was the now-infamous “kraken” lawsuit in which he and attorney Sidney Powell claimed “massive fraud” in Arizona’s 2020 the election. It was tossed out of court by a judge who admonished that “gossip and innuendo cannot be a substitute for earnest pleadings and procedure in federal court.”

Kolodin was placed on probation by the State Bar of Arizona late last year after state regulators found four of his elections lawsuits violated rules for attorneys. As part of a settlement, Kolodin has to take several continuing legal education courses focused on attorney ethics.

O'Connor could teach him a bit about civics

If she was alive, no doubt, O’Connor might have taught Kolodin that class on ethics.

Or maybe, as a mother, she might have taught him that it’s not nice to speak ill of the dead.

Fortunately, not all Republicans go out of their way to slander dead Republican icons.

Rep. Matt Gress, R-Phoenix, sponsored HJR 2002.

“For a quarter century, Justice O’Connor served our country with distinction and accomplished one of her missions that paved the way for five other female justices to follow her,” Rep. Matt Gress, R-Phoenix, said in urging passage of his bill.

“The capstone to Justice O’Connor’s career might very well be her dedication, through the creation of the Sandra Day O’Connor Institute and iCivics, which continue to promote the importance of civic knowledge and engagement, especially when it comes to understanding the U.S. Constitution.”

Perhaps the institute should add a class on having class.

Or maybe Kolodin will tell us he was just joking?

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, at @LaurieRoberts or on Threads at laurierobertsaz.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Sandra Day O'Connor is 'undistinguished' for a statue, lawmaker says