Former Justice Sandra Day O'Conner Staying Busy In Retirement

Her husband's illness helped persuade Justice Sandra Day O'Connor to retire prematurely from the Supreme Court last year.

But since then, O'Connor, who served as a crucial swing vote on the court because of her relatively moderate stance, has taken on a number of assignments. Most recently, O'Connor served as a member of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, the congressionally recommended commission that was tasked to come up with an endgame to the growing U.S. military impasse in Iraq. Her next project will also deal with the U.S. military. But this time, it's mediating a decades-old lawsuit against the U.S. Army by Kentucky farmers who were forced to sell nearly 36,000 acres of land during World War II to build a training camp, later named Camp Breckinridge.

According to a memorandum opinion filed in the case last year, the land had belonged to "the same families for generations" and was that which "they depended on [for] their livelihood."

More than a decade after acquiring the land, the memorandum says, the U.S. Army sold oil, gas, coal, and other mineral rights for a large sum of money, which eventually totaled more than $30 million. The judge in the case, Susan G. Braden, in the Court of Federal Claims in Washington, had asked the plaintiffs and the Justice Department, which is defending the Army in court, to notify her if they were willing to have O'Connor serve as a mediator in the case.

This week, the Justice Department said yes. The plaintiffs include about 1,000 former landowners and their heirs in Henderson, Union, and Webster counties in western Kentucky.

Their attorney, M. Stephen Pitt, who is based in Louisville, Ky., says he notified Braden in January that his clients were willing to have O'Connor serve as mediator, as Braden had suggested, for a period of 120 days, to determine whether a settlement can be reached. In December, Braden had suggested that Fred Fielding, former counsel to President Ronald Reagan, serve as mediator, but that idea fell apart when Fielding was named counsel to President Bush.

Braden then contacted O'Connor and sent her some documents. O'Connor expressed her willingness to mediate, which attorney Pitt says probably is a good thing. He has been dealing with this case for 13 years, and some of his clients have tried to get justice for some 60 years.

"Justice O'Connor brings an awful lot of experience and ability with respect to any proceeding in which she is involved," Pitt told U.S. News," and I certainly would be optimistic that if anyone can help get the parties together, she will be able to."

By Chitra Ragavan