WASHINGTON -- Alaska's senators praised Justice Sandra Day O'Connor as an excellent jurist and public servant.
"She is one great lady," Sen. Ted Stevens said in a speech on the Senate floor. "I think she will be remembered in this country as a groundbreaker, overcoming stereotypes."
She has visited Alaska many times, he noted, and is passionate about sportfishing.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski said O'Connor was a role model.
"She was the woman who first encouraged me to push the limits and personally encouraged me to aim high," Murkowski said.
Friday morning, right after O'Connor announced her retirement, Murkowski thanked and congratulated her when the two met by chance at Washington's Reagan National Airport.
Here is how O'Connor voted in some of the Supreme Court cases of particular interest to Alaska:
• Offshore boundaries, 1997
The U.S. Supreme Court concluded, in an opinion Justice O'Connor wrote, that an ice and gravel formation off the coast of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge known as Dinkum Sands did not constitute an island. The effect was to draw the border between federal and state waters to the state's disadvantage. More than $1.5 billion in offshore oil and gas lease proceeds were at stake at the time.
• Native sovereignty, 1998
In 1998, the court unanimously ruled that the Native Village of Venetie's land was not "Indian Country," thus limiting the tribe's governmental powers. The ruling meant that Alaska tribes don't have the same kind of jurisdiction over territory that tribes in the Lower 48 have. O'Connor didn't write the opinion but was a keen questioner during oral arguments.
• Abortion, 2000
O'Connor voted with the majority to strike down Nebraska's law banning what is called "partial birth abortion." The ruling also doomed a similar Alaska ban. O'Connor noted in the opinion that Nebraska could have followed the lead of other states and passed a law that more directly described the method it sought to ban. A law that only banned dilation and extraction and included an exception to protect the life and health of the woman would be constitutional, she wrote.
• Open primaries, 2000
She voted with the majority in an opinion that said political parties can close their primary elections to voters registered with other parties. The ruling came from California, where it was a victory for the Democratic Party. But it also validated the closed-primary elections Alaska Republicans wanted.
• Sex offenders, 2003
O'Connor voted with the majority in rejecting the arguments of two Alaska men and upholding Alaska's sex-offender registry law. The opinion said the state can require sex offenders, even those convicted long ago, to register with authorities and also can post their pictures on the Internet.
• Clean air, 2004
Her vote was decisive in the ruling that the federal government acted within its rights when it blocked operation of a power generator at the Red Dog zinc mine on grounds that it would have violated the Clean Air Act. The 5-4 decision was a defeat for the state of Alaska, which in 1999 permitted the mine's operators to install a new diesel generator with cheaper anti-pollution equipment than the federal Environmental Protection Agency believed was necessary.
