• Decades before they would serve together on the Supreme Court, William Rehnquist and Sandra Day O'Connor were engaged in a different type of courtship. Both attended Stanford University's law school in California -- they regularly shared notes and eventually became a couple. Although Sandra Day eventually broke up with Rehnquist and married a different Stanford law school classmate, John O'Connor, an author revealed to NPR that she first turned down a marriage proposal from Rehnquist, the future chief justice, in the early 1950s. Rehnquist, who graduated a semester early, went to Washington for a Supreme Court clerkship. In a letter to Day, who had already begun dating John O'Connor, Rehnquist said he wanted to see her and discuss "important things," author Evan Thomas told NPR on Wednesday. Rehnquist later wrote: "To be specific, Sandy, will you marry me this summer?" Thomas discovered the letters while conducting research for his new book, First, a biography of O'Connor, who was nominated by Ronald Reagan to the nation's highest court in 1981. O'Connor's son, Jay, told NPR that news of the proposal surprised family members, though they'd previously known that his mother had dated Rehnquist. "Dating was pretty innocent in the '50s," Jay O'Connor told NPR, adding that "multiple men proposed to my mom when she was in college and law school, and ultimately my dad was the one who was the real deal." She married John O'Connor, becoming Sandra Day O'Connor, in 1952. While her romance with Rehnquist never flourished, they remained close friends until he died in 2005.
• Musician and fashion designer Kanye West, who discussed prison sentencing and North Korea over lunch with President Donald Trump in October, tweeted Tuesday that his "eyes are now wide open" and that he's backing away from politics. West, in one of a series of tweets, said he had never wanted any association with so-called Blexit, a call for black Americans to leave the Democratic Party. The Washington Post had reported West, who has a contract with sports brand Adidas, had designed a line of T-shirts supporting the cause. Ahead of next week's midterm elections, West also reiterated his support for an overhaul of sentencing guidelines, something he and his wife, Kim Kardashian West, have discussed with Trump and other administration officials on previous occasions. West has attracted attention over previous controversial statements. In May, Adidas' chief executive distanced himself from comments West made calling slavery "a choice." In April this year, the musician also voiced his love for Trump on Twitter.
A Section on 11/01/2018