November 8, 2007

Dear Justice Holland:
Thank you so much for serving as a small group leader at the 2007 Conference of the Sandra Day O’Connor Project on the State of the Judiciary, State Courts: the Debate on Judicial Elections and Judicial Selection. Development of small group recommendations was an essential part of the Conference’s goal. I expect a summary of the recommendations will be published within the next month by the Project.

The Conference has contributed to an important discussion about how to insure that state courts will continue to be fair and impartial. The Conference gave those who have been working on best practices a high-level audience with the ability to affect practices in their home states. I hope that all those who attended the Conference will return to their workplaces and communities with a renewed appreciation of the importance of these issues, and will work to defend the independence of the state courts.

Your expertise fostered a spirit of collaborative inquiry in the small group you led, and has helped make it possible for the Conference to reach a consensus series of recommendations, as I hoped it would.

Thank you for your help.
Sincerely,

Sandra Day O’Connor
Associate Justice, Retired
United States Supreme Court