Excuse Me, Your Honor . . . May I Call You ‘Grandma’?

WASHINGTON — There’s a new page-turner of a book out on Sandra Day O’Connor, an insider’s look at one of the nation’s most powerful women. Its title: “Meet My Grandmother . . . She’s a Supreme Court Justice.”

Courtney O’Connor, 9, helps author Lisa Tucker McElroy tell kids some things about her grandma’s job in the 32-page, photo-filled book. Courtney, who lives in the Phoenix area, takes readers along during a visit to the great marble palace on Capitol Hill.

When in Washington, hanging out at Grandma’s office is just as cool as going bowling with her grandfather, Courtney reveals.

Grandmotherly words of wisdom are shared as well: “Grandma says that all judges who are grandmothers should start their days by exercising.”

Sure enough, the book, published by the Millbrook Press of Brookfield, Conn., includes a photo of the early morning exercise class O’Connor, 69, attends three days a week in the Supreme Court gym.

“The basketball court is called ‘the Highest Court in the Land.’ That’s a pretty funny joke, because the Supreme Court is also called the highest court in the land,” Courtney explains.

Other insights include the fact that the justice, like her eight colleagues, “wears really neat robes when she sits on the bench to hear cases. . . . Grandma doesn’t have to walk around in her robes all the time. When she’s not hearing cases, she just wears regular clothes. You wouldn’t even know she was a Supreme Court justice by looking at her.”

O’Connor has been a national symbol since 1981 when she became the first woman on the nation’s highest court. During Courtney’s visit, students from Sandra Day O’Connor High School in Helotes, Texas, stopped by to meet their school’s namesake. Their picture appears in the book as well, along with the justice in a Panthers varsity letter jacket.

The book includes a 1950s photo the justice snapped of her husband, John, standing outside the Supreme Court building one Saturday. “Grandma says that that was the closest she thought she would ever get to the Supreme Court.”

Also included are helpful hints for readers who want to become Supreme Court justices too, such as:

* “Study hard in school. To become a lawyer--and later a justice --you have to go to college and then law school.” The Constitution does not require a justice to be a lawyer, readers are told, but all of the court’s nine members are.

* “Watch lawyers in court. You can watch trials on ‘Court TV.’ You can also call lawyers in your community, tell them you are interested in being a lawyer and ask them if you can watch them in court.” Supreme Court sessions are not televised because the justices do not allow it, but the book does not mention that.