Scoring · Jurists
O'Connor, Sandra Day
1930–2023
Library of Congress (Transferred by Sven Manguard,. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
O'Connor's framework — Reagan's first SCOTUS appointee, the Rehnquist Court's swing vote, author of the Casey plurality preserving Roe under stare decisis, founder of iCivics in 2009 for civic education, and the last-decade speeches defending judicial independence60 — runs against Paxton's institutional pressure on the courts (Texas v. Pennsylvania asking SCOTUS to overturn election results, the documented forum-shopping practices, the State Bar professional-misconduct case) and is functionally implemented by Talarico's SCOTUS ethics-code, financial-disclosure, gift-limit, and judicial-independence package, with two points off Talarico for the federalism strain of his more expansive economic policies.
Issue
Paxton
Talarico
Judicial independence under political pressure
Hurts
Helps
Paxton: Hurts · Talarico: Helps
O'Connor's last-decade speeches warned judicial independence was under threat from political pressure; Paxton's Texas v. Pennsylvania lawsuit asking SCOTUS to overturn democratic election results is the precise institutional pressure she named, while Talarico's SCOTUS ethics, recusal, and judicial-independence package2 is functionally an O'Connor-framework implementation.
Legal-ethics / professional integrity
Hurts
Helps
Paxton: Hurts · Talarico: Helps
Forum-shopping / neutral process
Hurts
Helps
Paxton: Hurts · Talarico: Helps
O'Connor's institutional-restraint framework treats neutral judicial process as foundational; the forum-shopping documented by Tribune/ProPublica5 is exactly the kind of process manipulation O'Connor opposed, while Talarico's judicial-process reforms (random case-assignment rules, division-shopping limits)2 target the same process-neutrality concern O'Connor championed.
Casey plurality / stare decisis / abortion
Hurts
Helps
Paxton: Hurts · Talarico: Helps
Civic education / constitutional literacy (iCivics)
Hurts
Helps
Paxton: Hurts · Talarico: Helps
O'Connor founded iCivics in 200960 to address the erosion of constitutional literacy; Talarico's former-teacher framing and public-education-investment platform2 tracks O'Connor's civic-education commitment, while Paxton's Texas v. Pennsylvania election challenge and broader election-denial posture model the constitutional-literacy erosion O'Connor founded iCivics to combat.
Centrist-Republican temperament
Hurts
Helps
Paxton: Hurts · Talarico: Helps
O'Connor's institutionalist-Republican temperament was defined by restraint and cross-coalition reasoning; Paxton's factional style is its opposite, while Talarico's temperament is the closer match to O'Connor's framework even across party lines.
Federalism / legislative-reach limits
Mixed
Hurts
Paxton: Mixed · Talarico: Hurts
O'Connor spent her career navigating federalism limits on legislative reach; Talarico's more expansive federal economic agenda is the kind of legislative reach she would have flagged as federalism-straining, costing him a couple of points. Paxton's federalism record is genuinely mixed for O'Connor's framework — his state-AG litigation against federal agency overreach1 is the kind of state-sovereignty assertion her federalism credits, but his Texas v. Pennsylvania suit asking the Supreme Court to police another state's elections and his expansive theories of state-AG authority cut against the structural-federalism restraint she insisted on.
Sources
- Ken Paxton for U.S. Senate, official campaign issues page, accessed May 2026. (full list)
- Talarico for Texas, official campaign issues pages (taxes, education, healthcare, immigration, social media/AI, freedom-family-faith, public-safety-justice, corruption-democracy, labor-business), accessed May 2026. (full list)
- Texas Tribune / ProPublica, 'Paxton files lawsuits in courts that could have more favorable outcomes,' May 20, 2026. (full list)
- State Bar of Texas Commission for Lawyer Discipline v. Warren Kenneth Paxton Jr., professional misconduct case filed 2022 over Texas v. Pennsylvania (2020) election lawsuit; Texas Supreme Court procedural rulings 2024-2026; State Bar of Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct. (full list)
- Sandra Day O'Connor, 'The Majesty of the Law' (2003); Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992); founding of iCivics (2009); public speeches on judicial independence (2010-2020); 'Out of Order: Stories from the History of the Supreme Court' (2013). (full list)