Hourly Update

O'Connor says schools need to teach more civics

TEMPE - Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on Friday said states that have stopped teaching civics to their students have contributed to increased criticism of judges at all levels. "Nationally, we know many states have stopped teaching government and civics to students," O'Connor said. "There is a focus these days on math and science and reading, which is great and we need it, but I think we may not neglect government and civics and American history if we're going to maintain ourselves as a nation." O'Connor, who retired in January after 24 years on the nation's highest court, spoke with an Associated Press reporter before delivering remarks at the naming of Arizona State University's College of Law in her honor. She has spoken frequently since leaving the court about the threat to judicial independence and continued on that tack Friday. "It impacts all branches of government, and certainly the judicial branch, if young citizens of our country don't learn why it was that the framers of the constitution thought it was so important to have a fair, impartial and independent judiciary," she said. O'Connor spent her early years on a cattle ranch near Duncan, Ariz. before moving to El Paso, Texas. She served as an Arizona assistant attorney general from 1965 to 1969 before she became a state senator. In 1979, she was appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals and in 1981, she became the first female Supreme Court justice.