Post-Election Roundup (4)

November 10, 1980

Reagan is likely to have ample chance to make good on one campaign promise: to appoint a woman to the Supreme Court. The Reagan years, in fact, are likely to leave a heavy mark on the court. The two most liberal, William J. Brennan Jr. and Thurgood Marshall, are considered to be close to retirement. Most court observers feel they will try to hang on, hoping to slow the court's drift away from activism.

William French Smith, a close Reagan adviser and personal attorney, said, "In a nutshell, his political philosophy is [that] the laws of the country should be made by the legislature and construed by the judiciary, and, to the extent possible, not made by the judiciary."m