Justice Lauds Courthouse in Santa Ana : Speech: Sandra Day O’Connor says Reagan name is appropriate for planned structure, cites his impact on judiciary.

Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor told a gathering here Friday night that “it is high time you get a federal courthouse in Orange County.”

Speaking before the Orange County Bar Assn. at Le Meridian Hotel, O’Connor also said it was appropriate to name the future federal courthouse after former President Ronald Reagan.

“A president’s legacy is shaped to a great extend by his appointment of federal judges,” said O’Connor, who was appointed to the Supreme Court by Reagan in 1981. “It has been more than five years since President Reagan has left office, but his impact (on the judiciary) is still being felt.”

Construction of Orange County’s new 10-story, $123-million Ronald Reagan Federal Building and United States Courthouse is expected to begin in December. The completion of the courthouse’s first phase is expected to be sometime in spring, 1997.

The project also is expected to boost the local economy, including an estimated 600 construction jobs and 600 permanent jobs, and accommodate an increasing Southern California caseload. Orange County, along with Los Angeles and five other counties, is part of the most populous federal judicial district in the country--the Central District of California.

Currently, Orange County cases have overwhelmed the Santa Ana Federal Building and a temporary structure on Santa Ana Boulevard and many must be shifted to Los Angeles.

The new building will be in downtown Santa Ana, southeast of Santa Ana’s Civic Center on a city-donated, four-acre site bordered by 4th and 5th streets and Broadway and Ross streets.