A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | CH | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
Sandra Day O'Connor | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, c. 2002 | |
| Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States | |
| In office September 25, 1981 – January 31, 2006[1][2] | |
| Nominated by | Ronald Reagan |
| Preceded by | Potter Stewart |
| Succeeded by | Samuel Alito |
| Judge of the Arizona Court of Appeals for Division One | |
| In office December 14, 1979 – September 25, 1981 | |
| Nominated by | Bruce Babbitt |
| Preceded by | Mary Schroeder |
| Succeeded by | Sarah D. Grant[3] |
| Judge of the Maricopa County Superior Court for Division 31 | |
| In office January 9, 1975 – December 14, 1979 | |
| Preceded by | David Perry |
| Succeeded by | Cecil Patterson[4] |
| Member of the Arizona Senate | |
| In office January 8, 1973 – January 13, 1975 | |
| Preceded by | Howard S. Baldwin |
| Succeeded by | John Pritzlaff |
| Constituency | 24th district |
| In office January 11, 1971 – January 8, 1973 | |
| Preceded by | Constituency established |
| Succeeded by | Bess Stinson |
| Constituency | 20th district |
| In office October 30, 1969 – January 11, 1971 | |
| Preceded by | Isabel Burgess |
| Succeeded by | Constituency abolished |
| Constituency | 8-E district |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Sandra Day March 26, 1930 El Paso, Texas, U.S. |
| Died | December 1, 2023 (aged 93) Phoenix, Arizona, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 |
| Relatives | Ann Day (sister) |
| Education | Stanford University (BA, LLB) |
| Awards | Presidential Medal of Freedom (2009) |
| Signature |  |
Sandra Day O'Connor (March 26, 1930 – December 1, 2023) was an American attorney, politician, and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1981 to 2006. Nominated by President Ronald Reagan, O'Connor was the first woman to serve as a U.S. Supreme Court justice.[5][6] A moderate conservative, she was considered a swing vote. Before O'Connor's tenure on the Court, she was an Arizona state judge and earlier an elected legislator in Arizona, serving as the first female majority leader of a state senate as the Republican leader in the Arizona Senate.[7] Upon her nomination to the Court, O'Connor was confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate.
O'Connor usually sided with the Court's conservative bloc but on occasion sided with the Court's liberal members. She often wrote concurring opinions that sought to limit the reach of the majority holding. Her majority opinions in landmark cases include Grutter v. Bollinger and Hamdi v. Rumsfeld. In 2000, she wrote in part the per curiam majority opinion in Bush v. Gore and in 1992 was one of three co-authors of the lead opinion in Planned Parenthood v. Casey that preserved legal access to abortion in the United States. On July 1, 2005, O'Connor announced her retirement, effective upon the confirmation of a successor.[8] At the time of her death, O'Connor was the last living member of the Burger Court. Samuel Alito was nominated to take her seat in October 2005, and joined the Supreme Court on January 31, 2006.
During her term on the Court, O'Connor was regarded as among the most powerful women in the world.[9][10] After retiring, she succeeded Henry Kissinger as the chancellor of the College of William & Mary. In 2009, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.[11]
Early life and education
| External videos | |
|---|---|
 Booknotes interview with O'Connor on Lazy B: Growing Up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest, January 27, 2002, C-SPAN |
Sandra Day was born on March 26, 1930, in El Paso, Texas, the daughter of Harry Alfred Day, a rancher, and Ada Mae (Wilkey).[12][13][14] She grew up on a 198,000-acre family cattle ranch near Duncan, Arizona[15] and in El Paso, where she attended school. Her home was nine miles from the nearest paved road,[16] and did not have running water or electricity until Sandra was seven years old.[17] As a youth she owned a .22-caliber rifle, and would shoot coyotes and jackrabbits.[16] She began driving as soon as she could see over the dashboard, and had to learn to change flat tires herself.[15][16] Sandra had two younger siblings, a sister and a brother, respectively eight and ten years her junior.[17] Her sister Ann Day was a member of the Arizona Legislature from 1990 to 2000.[18] Her brother was H. Alan Day, a lifelong rancher, with whom she wrote Lazy B: Growing up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest (2002), about their childhood experiences on the ranch.[19] For most of her early schooling, Day lived in El Paso with her maternal grandmother,[17] and attended school at the Radford School for Girls, a private school,[20] as the family ranch was very distant from any school, although Day was able to return to the ranch for holidays and the summer.[17] Day did spend her eighth-grade year living at the ranch and riding a bus 32 miles to school.[17] She graduated sixth in her class at Austin High School in El Paso in 1946.[21]
When she was 16 years old, Day enrolled at Stanford University[22]: 25 and later graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in economics in 1950.[23] She continued at Stanford Law School for her law degree in 1952.[23] There, she served on the Stanford Law Review whose then presiding editor-in-chief was future Supreme Court chief justice William Rehnquist.[24] Day and Rehnquist also dated in 1950.[25][22] The relationship ended upon Rehnquist's graduation and move to Washington, D.C.; however, in 1951, he proposed marriage in a letter,[22]: 37, 42 but Day did not accept the proposal (which was one of four she received while a student at Stanford).[22]: 34 Day achieved the Order of the Coif, indicating she was in the top 10 percent of her class.[22]: 43 [a]
Early career and marriage
While in her final year at Stanford Law School, Day began dating John Jay O'Connor III, who was one class year behind her.[16][22]: 39–40 On December 20, 1952, six months after her graduation, O'Connor and Day married at her family's ranch.[28][22]: 50–51
Upon graduation from law school in 1952, O'Connor had difficulty finding a paying job as an attorney in a law firm because of her gender.[29] O'Connor found employment as a deputy county attorney in San Mateo, California, after she offered to work for no salary and without an office, sharing space with a secretary.[30] After a few months, she began drawing a small salary as she performed legal research and wrote memos.[22]: 52 She worked with San Mateo County District Attorney Louis Dematteis and deputy district attorney Keith Sorensen.[28]
When her husband was drafted, O'Connor decided to go with him to work in Germany as a civilian attorney for the Army's Quartermaster Corps.[31] They remained there for three years before returning to the States where they settled in Maricopa County, Arizona, to begin their family. They had three sons: Scott (born 1958), Brian (born 1960), and Jay (born 1962).[32][17] Following Brian's birth, O'Connor took a five-year hiatus from the practice of law.[17]
She volunteered in various political organizations, such as the Maricopa County Young Republicans, and served on Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater's presidential campaign in 1964.[33][17]
O'Connor served as assistant Attorney General of Arizona from 1965 to 1969.[17] In 1969, the governor of Arizona appointed O'Connor to fill a vacancy in the Arizona Senate.[17] She ran for and won the election for the seat the following year.[17] By 1973, she became the first woman to serve as Arizona's or any state's majority leader.[34][35] She developed a reputation as a skilled negotiator and a moderate. After serving two full terms, O'Connor decided to leave the Senate.[35]
In 1974, O'Connor was appointed to the Maricopa County Superior Court,[36] serving from 1975 to 1979 when she was elevated to the Arizona Court of Appeals. She served on the Court of Appeals-Division One until 1981 when she was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Ronald Reagan.[37]
Supreme Court career
| This article is part of a series on |
| Conservatism in the United States |
|---|
 |