O’Connor, Sandra Day (1930-2023), was the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States when she became an associate justice of the court in 1981. President Ronald Reagan appointed her to replace Justice Potter Stewart, who retired. O’Connor retired from the court in January 2006 after the U.S. Senate confirmed Samuel A. Alito, Jr., as her successor.
As a Supreme Court justice, O’Connor often sided with conservative court members. But she was sympathetic to liberal views on a small number of issues. She provided the deciding vote in many important cases, involving such issues as affirmative action, late-term abortion, and states’ rights.
Sandra Day was born on March 26, 1930, in El Paso, Texas. She graduated from Stanford Law School in 1952. At Stanford, she had met fellow law student John J. O’Connor, III. They married in late 1952 and eventually had three children. In 1965, she became an assistant attorney general of Arizona. In 1969, she was appointed to an unexpired term in the Arizona Senate. She won election to the state Senate in 1970, was reelected in 1972, and was Senate majority leader in 1973. Sandra Day O’Connor was elected a judge of a Maricopa County trial court in 1974. In 1979, the governor appointed her to the Arizona Court of Appeals, the second highest court in the state.
O’Connor wrote several books. Lazy B: Growing Up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest (2002) is a memoir of her childhood. The Majesty of the Law: Reflections of a Supreme Court Justice (2003) covers her years on the Supreme Court. The children’s books Chico (2005) and Finding Susie (2009) are based on O’Connor’s childhood on an Arizona cattle ranch. Out of Order: Stories from the History of the Supreme Court (2013) contains many anecdotes from the court’s history. O’Connor died on Dec. 1, 2023.
See also Supreme Court of the United States.
