Kate O'Regan
[1] She stayed on at Bowman for two years under John Brand, specialising in labour law and land rights and representing COSATU, NUM, NUMSA and the Black Sash.
[9] In 1998, she co-authored Fedsure Life Assurance Ltd v Greater Johannesburg Transitional Metropolitan Council, the Court's founding judgment on the rule of law and legality review.
[11] O'Regan's judgment in Dawood v Minister of Home Affairs, delivered in 2000, established for the first time that the right to family life is constitutionally protected and that the conferral of broad discretionary powers on government officials can be unconstitutional.
[26] And in 2005, most famously, O'Regan gave judgment in K v Minister of Safety and Security, finding the state liable to compensate a plaintiff who was raped by a police officer.
[27] The judgment's radical expansion of the test for vicarious liability, following Bazley v Curry and Lister v Hesley Hall Ltd, was celebrated by women's rights groups[28][29] but criticised by some academics.
[34] In discrimination law, O'Regan co-authored Prinsloo v Van der Linde,[35] which established the connection between the right to equality and dignity, and penned a unanimous judgment in the 2003 follow-up to Satchwell v President of the Republic of South Africa.
In Minister of Home Affairs v Fourie, she strongly criticised the majority for referring the regulation of same-sex marriage to Parliament rather than providing immediate relief.
[37] And her dissent in the earlier S v Jordan (co-authored with Sachs J) held that the criminalisation of sex work (and not its solicitation) unfairly discriminates on the basis of gender and is therefore unconstitutional.
[46] After O'Regan retired, along with Pius Langa, Yvonne Mokgoro and Albie Sachs, these four founding members of the Court were replaced by President Jacob Zuma's first raft of senior judicial appointees.
[1] It was during this period that John Hlophe allegedly approached judges Chris Jafta and Bess Nkabinde to influence their decision in litigation involving Jacob Zuma.
[49] This perceived capitulation by the ruling African National Congress to pressure from China was widely condemned,[50] including by then Minister of Health Barbara Hogan.
[51] O'Regan also spoke out, publicly agreeing with Hogan and expressing her "dismay" that "human rights does not seem to enter into the picture of some foreign affairs decisions that are made".
[52][53] O'Regan was heavily criticised by the government and the Black Lawyers Association, which threatened to lay a misconduct complaint against her for "concern[ing] herself with politics".
