February 6, 2009
Honorable Randy J. Holland
Justice Supreme Court of Delaware

Dear Justice Holland:

Since my retirement from the United States Supreme Court, I have traveled the nation and the world speaking about issues that are of concern to me. International dispute resolution, the rule of law, and improved civics education for our young people are all topics that I am now able to speak about freely. Yet one matter consistently on my mind, and key to my mission, is the need to confront challenges to judicial independence at the state and federal level.

In 2006, Justice Breyer and I asked Georgetown University Law Center to host a conference, co-sponsored by the American Law Institute, called “Fair and Independent Courts: A Conference on the State of the Judiciary”. Shortly thereafter, Georgetown Law agreed to serve as the home for the Sandra Day O’Connor Project on the State of the Judiciary, which over its three-year life has held additional conferences, published articles and op-eds, and assisted me in my efforts to increase public awareness on this topic. Recently, the Project, together with the American Academy of Arts and Sciences published a special volume of Daedalus on this important subject.

The Project is completing its work in 2009, and to mark this, we will be holding a major event. I invite you to hold May 20, 2009 for this important Conference, co-sponsored by Georgetown Law and The Aspen Institute. The Conference will take place at Georgetown Law’s Capitol Hill campus in Washington DC. It is an invitation-only event, for thought leaders like yourself- people from the business, non-profit, education and media communities, as well as leading attorneys and judges. There is no charge to attend-we ask only that you listen to and engage with the panelists, actively participate in the plenary session, and return to your jobs and communities energized. We hope you will come away from this Conference actively committed to keeping our courts fair and impartial, maintaining the quality of the bench, and educating your colleagues and fellow citizens to the essential fact that judges are bound by their oath to decide cases based on the law and facts, and that this is the essence of the legitimacy of the courts in a democracy like ours.

To give you a sense of some of the subjects we will be considering, I have included with this letter two things: a DVD of the 2006 Conference Proceedings, and a copy of the November 2008 special issue of Daedalus. I hope you will enjoy these.
Justice Breyer and I, and a number of other special guest speakers and panelists have already marked our calendars to attend this important Conference. We hope that you will also hold the date. I look forward to greeting you in May.

Sincerely yours,
Sandra Day O’Connor

Sandra Day O’Connor Associate Justice, Retired
United States Supreme Court
cc.: Walter Isaacson, President, The Aspen Institute