O’Connor takes seat on Supreme Court - Sep 25, 1981 - HISTORY.com O’Connor takes seat on Supreme Court Share this: O’Connor takes seat on Supreme Court Author O’Connor takes seat on Supreme Court URL Publisher A+E Networks Sandra Day O’Connor becomes the first female U.S. Supreme Court justice in history when she is sworn in by Chief Justice Warren Burger. Sandra Day was born in El Paso, Texas, in 1930. She grew up on her family’s cattle ranch in southeastern Arizona and attended Stanford University, where she studied economics. A legal dispute over her family’s ranch stirred her interest in law, and in 1950 she enrolled in Stanford Law School. She took just two years to receive her law degree and was ranked near the top of her class. Upon graduation, she married John Jay O’Connor III, a classmate. Because she was a woman, no law firm she applied to would hire her for a suitable position, so she turned to the public sector and found work as a deputy county attorney for San Mateo, California. In 1953, her husband was drafted into the U.S.

Army as a judge, and the O’Connors lived for three years in West Germany, with Sandra working as a civilian lawyer for the army. In 1957, they returned to the United States and settled down in Phoenix, Arizona, where they had three children in the six years that followed. During this time, O’Connor started a private law firm with a partner and became involved in numerous volunteer activities. In 1965, she became an assistant attorney general for Arizona and in 1969 was appointed to the Arizona State Senate to occupy a vacant seat. Subsequently elected and reelected to the seat, she became the first woman in the United States to hold the position of majority leader in a state senate. In 1974, she was elected a superior court judge in Maricopa County and in 1979 was appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals by Governor Bruce Babbitt, a Democrat. Two years later, on July 7, 1981, President Ronald Reagan nominated her to the Supreme Court to fill the seat of retiring justice Potter Stewart, an Eisenhower appointee.

In his 1980 presidential campaign, Reagan had promised to appoint a woman to the high court at one of his earliest opportunities, and he chose O’Connor, out of a group of some two dozen male and female candidates, to be his first appointee to the high court. O’Connor, known as a moderate conservative, faced opposition from anti-abortion groups, who criticized her judicial defense of legalized abortion on several occasions. Liberals celebrated the appointment of a woman to the Supreme Court but were critical of some of her views. Nevertheless, at the end of her confirmation hearings on Capitol Hill, the Senate voted unanimously to endorse her nomination. On September 25, 1981, she was sworn in as the 102nd justice–and first woman justice–in Supreme Court history. Initially regarded as a member of the court’s conservative faction, she later emerged from William Rehnquist’s shadow (chief justice from 1986) as a moderate and pragmatic conservative. On social issues, she often votes with liberal justices, and in several cases she has upheld abortion rights.

She is known for her dispassionate and carefully researched opinions on the bench and is regarded as a prominent justice because of her tendency to moderate the sharply divided Supreme Court. On July 1, 2005, O’Connor announced her retirement from the U.S. Supreme Court. She was replaced by Justice Samuel Alito in January 2006. Related Videos Sandra Day O'Connor | Associate Justice United States Supreme Court (Retired) Home: Library: O’Connor, Sandra Day “Society as a whole benefits immeasurably from a climate in which all persons, regardless of race or gender, may have the opportunity to earn respect, responsibility, advancement and remuneration based on ability.” - SANDRA DAY O’CONNOR Sandra Day O’Connor Associate Justice United States Supreme Court (Retired), Born: March 26, 1930 Sandra Day was born on March 26, 1930 in El Paso, Texas. She spent her early childhood on the Day family's 198,000 acre cattle ranch. When she reached school age her parents sent her back to El Paso to live with her grandmother.

Sandra Day attended Stanford University , where she received her B.A. in economics in 1950. She continued at Stanford for her law degree, graduating in two years rather than the customary three, and graduating third out of a class of 102. It was during her work as editor on the Stanford Law Review that she met John Jay O’Connor III, also attending law school at Stanford. Soon after graduation they were married. The O’Connors settled in Phoenix, Arizona. O’Connor served as an Arizona assistant attorney general from 1965 to 1969, when she was appointed to a vacancy in the Arizona Senate. In 1974, she ran successfully for trial judge, a position she held until she was appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals in 1979. Eighteen months later, on July 7, 1981 President Ronald Reagan nominated her to the Supreme Court. In September 1981, Sandra Day O’Connor became the Court’s 102nd justice and its first female member. During her time on the court Justice O’Connor was regarded as a consummate compromiser.

She also made it clear that the high court's role in American society was to interpret the law, not to legislate. Her votes were generally conservative, but she frequently surprised observers with her political independence. A quietly determined woman who has blazed new trails for her sex, Sandra Day O’Connor has become a role model for Americans of both sexes and all ages. On July 1, 2005 Associate Justice O’Connor announced her retirement from the Supreme Court after 24 years of service on the bench. ​1981: Sandra Day O'Connor - Women who broke political glass ceilings - Pictures - CBS News Women who broke political glass ceilings Next First Female Nominee - Hillary Clinton History was made on July 26, 2016 when the Democratic Party made Hillary Clinton the first woman in history to be the nominee of a major political party for president in the U.S. But Clinton's not the first woman to break through the glass ceiling in politics . Here are a few other women trailblazers in American politics.

Credit: Julio Cortez/AP 1866: Elizabeth Cady Stanton Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902) is best known for her work as a leading 19th century suffragist and reformer. But before women could even vote, Stanton ran for Congress in New York. She didn't win, but did send a powerful message about women's rights. Credit: Library of Congress 1872: Victoria Claflin Woodhull Victoria Claflin Woodhull (1838-1927) was the first woman to run for president. She ran under the banner of the Equal Rights party, not a major political party of the time. Since she ran about 50 years before the 19th amendment was ratified, giving women the right to vote, Woodhull could not even vote for herself. She lost, winning zero electoral votes. It would be close to a century later when another woman would run for her party's nomination for president. (Maine Senator Margaret Chase Smith ran in 1964) So who does the first woman pick as her running mate? The Equal Rights Party named former slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass as her running mate.

But Douglass never actually accepted the nomination and actually gave stump speeches for Woodhull's competition, incumbent President Ulysses S. Grant. Credit: Library of Congress 1887: Susanna Madora Salter The honor of the first successful run by a woman for elected office belongs to Susanna Madora Salter (1860-1961), who was elected mayor of Argonia, Kansas. Salter was reportedly nominated to the Prohibition Party ticket as joke, but she ended up winning two-thirds of the vote. She served her term but never ran for office again. Slater died in 1961 at the age of 101. Credit: Kansas Historical Society 1916: Jeanette Rankin 1916: Suffragist and Pacifist Jeanette Rankin (1880-1973) was the first woman elected to congress.

Upon her election in 1916 she reportedly said, "I may be the first woman member of Congress, but I won't be the last." Serving in the House of Representatives from 1917-1919 and again from 1941-1943, the congresswoman from Montana was the only representative to vote against congressional authorization for both WWI and WWII. (She was actually the only representative to vote against WWII) Rankin's political career didn't stop after she left the House of Representatives. She was outspoken about her views against the Vietnam War and in 1968 led a 5,000 person march (the "Jeannette Rankin Brigade") in Washington D.C. to protest the war. Credit: Library of Congress 1925: Nellie Tayloe Ross Nellie Tayloe Ross (1876-1977) of Wyoming was the first woman U.S. governor, serving from 1925 to 1927 to complete the term of her deceased husband. She ran for reelection in 1926 but lost in a close race. Ross' career then turned from Wyoming to Washington.

She was appointed vice-chairwoman of the DNC in charge of activities for women. In 1933, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt appointed her the director of the U.S. mint, a position she would hold for 20 years. Credit: Library of Congress ​1933: Frances Perkins Frances Perkins (1882-1965) once said "I came to Washington to work for God, FDR, and the millions of forgotten, plain common workingmen." Appointed as Secretary of Labor by FDR in 1933, Perkins became the first woman appointed to a president's cabinet. She held the position for 12 years, making her the longest serving Secretary of Labor. As chairwoman of the President's Committee on Economic Security, she oversaw all the reports and hearings that eventually lead to the Social Security Act of 1935. Credit: Library of Congress ​1931: Hattie Wyatt Caraway Hattie Wyatt Caraway (1878-1950) of Arkansas was appointed to the U.S. Senate after her husband, the previous senator, died.

Though not elected into office initially, Caraway would go on to win reelection and would serve 14 years as a senator. She was known as "Silent Hattie" in the Senate as she spoke just 15 times before the Senate. But she had her reasons for her silence. Caraway once said in reference to avoiding speeches, "I haven't the heart to take a minute away from the men. The poor dears love it so." During her term she was appointed chair of the Enrolled Bills Committee, making her the first woman to chair a senate committee. Credit: Library of Congress 1968: Shirley Chisolm Shirley Chisholm (1924-2005) was the first African American woman to be elected to Congress. During her 14 years in office the New York native fought for her beliefs on education and general family income. When she was originally assigned the Committee on Agriculture she petitioned the House Majority leader to reassign her, bypassing normal protocol. When she was denied she took the issue directly to the house floor and was reassigned to the Veteran's Affairs committee.

In 1972 Chisholm announced her intention to run for the Democratic party's nomination for president. She failed to receive the nomination but Chisholm did become the first African American woman to run for the presidency. In 2015 she was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Credit: AP 1970: Anna Mae Hays Just after Pearl Harbor in 1942, Anna Mae Hays (1920-) joined the Army Nurse Corps. She would go on to become the first woman General in the U.S. Armed Forces, appointed in 1970. The second woman, General Elizabeth P. Hoisington would be appointed just minutes afterward.After her tenure as a nurse in WWII, Gen. Hays went on to serve in the Korean War when many of her colleagues left the service. She would then go on to lead the emergency room at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and would become the Chief of the Army Nurse Corps in 1967. General Hays retired from nursing in 1971. Credit: U.S.

Army Medical Department Office of Medical History 1977: Patricia Roberts Harris Patricia Roberts Harris (1924-1985) became the first African American woman to hold a cabinet position when she was appointed as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Jimmy Carter. She would later be appointed Secretary of Health and Human Services, making her the first woman to hold two cabinet positions. Credit: AP ​1981: Sandra Day O'Connor During the 1980 election, President Ronald Reagan promised to nominate a woman to the Supreme Court in an effort to try to gain more support from women voters. In 1981, Reagan nominated Arizona judge Sandra Day O'Connor (1930-). She was quickly confirmed by the Senate, making Justice O'Connor the first female Supreme Court justice. O'Connor would serve for 24 years until 2005 when she announced her retirement. In 2009 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama. Credit: AP 1984: Geraldine Ferraro Geraldine Ferraro (1935-2011) was the first woman to secure the nomination for vice president on a major party's ticket.

But she and her running mate, Walter Mondale, did not win the election (They lost to Reagan-Bush). Prior to the nomination, Ferraro represented New York in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1979-1985. In 1998, Ferraro revealed she was diagnosed with a rare form of blood cancer. She succumbed to the illness in 2011 Credit: AP 1997: Madeleine Albright Madeleine Albright (1937-) became the first woman Secretary of State after President Bill Clinton nominated her to the post in 1996. The Czechoslovakia native previously represented the United States in the United Nations. During her tenure as Secretary of State she was a champion for human rights, fought to halt the spread of nuclear weapons and was an outspoken supporter of NATO. Albright's tenure as a Secretary of State ended in 2001, and she went on to author multiple New York Times best sellers and open several institutes for diplomacy and global strategy. In 2012 President Obama awarded Albright the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Credit: AP 2007: Nancy Pelosi Nancy Pelosi (1940-) was the first female Speaker of the House in the U.S. House of Representatives. First elected to congress in 1987, Pelosi has represented California's 8th district since then. In 2002 she was selected as the Democratic Leader for the House of Representatives and when Democrats won the majority of the House in the 2006 election, she assumed the role of Speaker. She remained Speaker until 2010 when Republicans won back control of the House. Pelosi is currently the minority leader in the House. She recently announced her endorsement of Hillary Clinton for president. Credit: AP 2013: Janet Yellen Janet Yellen (1946-) is the current chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System after being appointed in 2014. She's the first woman to hold the position and will remain the chair until her four year term is up in 2018. This year Forbes named her the 3rd most powerful woman in the world . Credit: REUTERS March 2016: Lori Robinson This past March Defense Secretary Ash Carter nominated Gen.

Lori Robinson (1959-) to be the head of U.S Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) making her the first woman to head a combat command . Upon assuming the position in May, the Air Force General is the top general overseeing all Air Force activities in North America. She's the highest ranking female service member in U.S. history. Credit: USAF June 2016: Hillary Clinton That brings us to this week. Hillary Clinton is now the presumptive Democratic Nominee for President, the first woman to win a major party's' nomination. This summer and fall she'll face off against the presumptive Republican Nominee Donald Trump until election day in November Credit: Julio Cortez/AP Sandra Day O'Connor: First Female Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor: Supreme Court Justice First Female Supreme Court Justice Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, 1993. Ron Sachs/CNP/Getty Images By Jone Johnson Lewis Updated June 10, 2016. Sandra Day O'Connor is known for the first woman to serve as an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court.

Appointed in 1981 by President Ronald Reagan, and known as often exercising a swing vote. Occupation: lawyer Dates: March 26 , 1930 - Sandra Day O'Connor Biography: Born in El Paso, Texas, Sandra Day O'Connor was raised on the family ranch, the Lazy B, in southeastern Arizona. Times were hard during the Depression, and young Sandra Day O'Connor worked on the ranch – and also read books with her college-educated mother. She had two younger siblings. Young Sandra, her family concerned that she get a good education, was sent to live with her grandmother in El Paso, and to attend private school and then high school there. Returning one year to the ranch when she was thirteen, a long school bus ride dimmed her enthusiasm and she returned to Texas and her grandmother. She graduated from high school at 16. She studied at Stanford University, starting in 1946 and graduating in 1950 magna cum laude. continue reading below our video 10 Best Universities in the United States Inspired to take up the law by a class late in her studies, she entered Stanford University's law school. She received her LL.D. in 1952.

Also in her class: William H. Rehnquist, who would serve as chief justice of the US Supreme Court. She worked on the law review and met John O'Connor, a student in the class after hers. They married in 1952 after she graduated. Sandra Day O'Connor's later court decisions against sex discrimination may have had some roots in her own experience: she was unable to find a position in a private law firm, because she was a woman – though she did get one offer to work as a legal secretary. She went to work, instead, as a deputy county attorney in California. When her husband graduated, he got a position as an Army attorney in Germany, and Sandra Day O'Connor worked there as a civilian attorney. Returning to the US, near Phoenix, Arizona, Sandra Day O'Connor and her husband started their family, with three sons born between 1957 and 1962. While she opened a law practice with a partner, she focused on raising the children – and also served as a volunteer in civic activities, became active in Republican politics, served on a zoning appeals board, and served on the governor's commission on marriage and the family.

O'Connor returned to full time employment in 1965 as an assistant attorney general for Arizona. In 1969 she was appointed to fill an empty state senate seat. She won election in 1970 and reelection in 1972. In 1972, she became the first woman in the US to serve as majority leader in a state senate. In 1974, O'Connor ran for a judgeship rather than for reelection to the state senate. From there, she was appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan, fulfilling a campaign promise to nominate a qualified woman to the Supreme Court, nominated Sandra Day O'Connor. She was confirmed by the Senate with 91 votes, becoming the first woman to serve as a justice on the US Supreme Court. She has often cast a swing vote on the court. On issues including abortion, affirmative action, death penalty, and religious freedom, she has generally taken a middle road and has narrowly defined the issues, satisfying neither liberals nor conservatives completely. She has generally found in favor of states' rights and has found for tough criminal rules.

O'Connor's most controversial vote may be her vote in 2001 to suspend Florida's ballot recount, thus ensuring the election of George W. Bush as US President. This vote, in a 5-4 majority, came just months after she publicly expressed her concern that Senator Al Gore's election could delay her retirement plans. O'Connor announced her retirement as an associate justice in 2005, pending appointment of a replacement, which took place when Samuel Alito was sworn in, on January 31, 2006. Sandra Day O'Connor indicated a desire to spend more time with her family; her husband was afflicted with Alzheimer's. Bibliography Sandra Day O'Connor. Lazy B: Growing Up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest. Hardcover. Sandra Day O'Connor. Lazy B: Growing Up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest. Paperback. Sandra Day O'Connor. The Majesty of the Law: Reflections of a Supreme Court Justice. Paperback. Joan Biskupic. Sandra Day O'Connor: How the First Woman on the Supreme Court Became Its Most Influential Member.

More women's history biographies, by name: Sandra Day O'Connor (Politician) - Pics, Videos, Dating, & News Sandra Day O'Connor Female Born Mar 26, 1930 Sandra Day O'Connor is an American jurist who was the first female member of the Supreme Court of the United States. She served as an Associate Justice from 1981 until her retirement from the Court in 2006. O'Connor was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981. In the latter years of her tenure, she was regarded as having the swing vote in many cases. Prior to O'Connor's appointment to the Court, she was an elected official and judge in Arizona.… Read More related links Happy Birthday, Dr. King: The Urgent Need For A New Civil Rights Movement Huffington Post - 6 days ago 'As one whose life was positively and profoundly impacted by the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the national holiday honoring King\'s life and legacy has particular relevance for me and millions of my fellow baby boomers.

This hard-won federal holiday was the culmination of 15 years of passionate and persistent advocacy by members of Congress, civil rights activists, student leaders, and entertainers, among other groups. Internationally acclaimed recor... [$$] Civics Game Advanced By Former Justice Is Classroom Hit Yahoo News - Nov 14, 2016 'Amid a contentious presidential campaign, a civics videogame from a group founded by retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day OâConnor got a lot of play in New York and New Jersey classrooms.' Summer Of Sandra Day O'connor, Then And Now CNN - Aug 20, 2016 'She always insisted it was luck that led to her appointment as the first woman on the US Supreme Court. But Sandra Day O\'Connor was ready for her luck. She demonstrated that 35 years ago this summer when Reagan administration lawyers flew to Arizona to interview her as one of several candidates for a court vacancy.

\n \n ' Contributing Op Ed Writer: When Sandra Day Oâconnor Broke Into The Menâs Club NYTimes - Aug 04, 2016 'Young people who find the nomination of a woman to be president unremarkable have no idea what it meant to see a woman named to the Supreme Court.' Learn about the memorable moments in the evolution of Sandra Day O'Connor. CHILDHOOD 1930 Birth Born on March 26, 1930. TEENAGE 1946 16 Years Old She graduated sixth in her class at Austin High School in El Paso in 1946. TWENTIES 1950 20 Years Old She attended Stanford University, where she received her B.A. in economics in 1950. … Read More She continued at the Stanford Law School for her LL.B.. There, she served on the Stanford Law Review with its presiding editor in chief, future Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who was the class valedictorian, and whom she briefly dated during law school.

Read Less Show Less She has stated that she graduated third in her law school class, although Stanford's official position is that the law school did not rank students in 1952. On December 20, 1952, six months after graduating from law school, she married John Jay O'Connor III. … Read More They had three sons: Scott, Brian, and Jay. Her husband suffered from Alzheimer's disease for nearly twenty years until his death in 2009, and she has become involved in raising awareness of the disease.<br /><br /> After graduation from law school, at least forty law firms refused to interview her for a position as an attorney because she was a woman. She eventually 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. Read Less THIRTIES 1965 35 Years Old O'Connor served as Assistant Attorney General of Arizona from 1965 to 1969 until she was appointed to fill a vacancy in the Arizona State Senate.

FORTIES 1973 43 Years Old She was elected to the State Senate in 1973 and became the first woman to serve as its Majority Leader. 1974 44 Years Old In 1974 she was elected to the Maricopa County Superior Court serving from 1975 to 1979 when she was elevated to the Arizona State Court of Appeals. FIFTIES Show Less She served on the Court of Appeals-Division One until 1981 when she was appointed to the Supreme Court. On July 7, 1981, Reagan â who had pledged during his 1980 presidential campaign to appoint the first woman to the Court â announced he would nominate O'Connor as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, to replace the retiring Potter Stewart. … Read More O'Connor received notification from President Reagan of her nomination on the day prior to the announcement and did not know that she was a finalist for the position. Read Less Reagan formally nominated O'Connor on August 19, 1981.

… Read More Pro-life and religious groups opposed O'Connor's nomination because they suspected, correctly, she would not be willing to overturn Roe v Wade. U.S. Senate Republicans, including Don Nickles of Oklahoma, Steve Symms of Idaho, and Jesse Helms of North Carolina called the White House to express their discontent over the nomination; Nickles said he and "other profamily Republican senators would not support" O'Connor. Helms, Nickles, and Symms nevertheless voted for the nomination.<br /><br /> Conservative activists such as the Reverend Jerry Falwell, Howard Phillips, and Peter Gemma, also spoke out against the nomination. Gemma called the nomination "a direct contradiction of the Republican platform to everything that candidate Reagan said and even President Reagan has said in regard to social issues." Gemma, the executive director of the National Pro-Life Political Action Committee, had sought to delay O'Connor's confirmation by challenging her record, including support for the Equal Rights Amendment. Read Less Reagan wrote in his diary on July 6, 1981: "Called Judge O'Connor and told her she was my nominee for supreme court. … Read More Already the flak is starting and from my own supporters.

Right to Life people say she is pro abortion. She says abortion is personally repugnant to her. I think she'll make a good justice." On September 21, O'Connor was confirmed by the U.S. Senate with a vote of 99â0; Senator Max Baucus of Montana was absent from the vote, and sent O'Connor a copy of A River Runs Through It by way of apology. In her first year on the Court she received over 60,000 letters from the public, more than any other justice in history.<br /><br /> In response to an editorial in The New York Times which mentioned the "nine old men" of the Court, the self-styled FWOTSC (First Woman On The Supreme Court) sent a pithy letter to the editor: <br /><br /> I noticed the following.: Read Less 1983 53 Years Old According to George Washington University law professor Jeffrey Rosen, "O'Connor was an eloquent opponent of intrusive group searches that threatened privacy without increasing security.

In a 1983 opinion upholding searches by drug-sniffing dogs, she recognized that a search is most likely to be considered constitutionally reasonable if it is very effective at discovering contraband without revealing innocent but embarrassing information." … Read More Washington College of Law law professor Andrew Taslitz, referencing O'Connor's dissent in a 2001 case, said of her Fourth Amendment jurisprudence: "O'Connor recognizes that needless humiliation of an individual is an important factor in determining Fourth Amendment reasonableness." Read Less 1987 57 Years Old In 1987's McCleskey v. Kemp, O'Connor joined a 5â4 majority that voted to uphold the death penalty for an African American man, Warren McCleskey, convicted of killing a white police officer, despite statistical evidence that black defendants were more likely to receive the death penalty than others both in Georgia and in the U.S. as a whole. LATE ADULTHOOD 1990 - 2003 7 More Events 1990 60 Years Old In the 1990 and 1995 Missouri v.

Jenkins rulings, O'Connor voted with the majority that district courts had no authority to require the state of Missouri to increase school funding in order to counteract racial inequality. 1991 61 Years Old In the 1991 Freeman v. Pitts case, O'Connor joined a concurring opinion in a plurality, agreeing that a school district that had formerly been under judicial review for racial segregation could be freed of this review, even though not all desegregation targets had been met. … Read More Law professor Herman Schwartz criticized these rulings, writing that in both cases "both the fact and effects of segregation were still present." Read Less 1996 66 Years Old In 1996's Shaw v. Hunt and Shaw v.

Reno, O'Connor joined a Rehnquist opinion, following an earlier path-breaking decision she authored in 1993, in which the court struck down an electoral districting plan designed to facilitate the election of two black representatives out of twelve from North Carolina, a state that had not had any black representative since Reconstruction, despite being approximately 20% blackâthe Court held that the districts were unacceptably gerrymandered and O'Connor called the odd shape of the district in question, North Carolina's 12th, "bizarre". … Read More Law Professor Herman Schwartz called O'Connor "the Courtâs leader in its assault on racially oriented affirmative action," although she joined with the Court in upholding the constitutionality of race-based admissions to universities.<br /><br /> In late 2008, O'Connor said she believed racial affirmative action should continue to help heal the inequalities created by racial discrimination. She stressed this wouldn't be a cure-all but rather a bandage and that society has to do much more to correct our racial imbalance. Read Less Show Less … O'Connor's relatively small shift away from conservatives on the Court seems to have been due at least in part to Thomas's views.

When Thomas and O'Connor were voting on the same side, she would typically write a separate opinion of her own, refusing to join his. In the 1992 term, O'Connor did not join a single one of Thomas' dissents. <br /><br />Willamette University College of Law Professor Steven Green, who served for nine years as general counsel for Americans United for Separation of Church and State and has argued before the Court numerous times stated, "She was a moderating voice on the court and was very hesitant to expand the law in either direction." Green also noted that, unlike some other Court justices, O'Connor "seemed to look at each case with an open mind". <br /><br />Some of the cases in which O'Connor was the deciding vote include:; McConnell v. FEC,: This ruling upheld the constitutionality of most of the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance bill regulating "soft money" contributions.; Grutter v. Bollinger, and Gratz v. Bollinger,: O'Connor wrote the opinion of the court in Grutter and joined the majority in Gratz.

Read Less In this pair of cases, the University of Michigan's undergraduate admissions program was held to have engaged in unconstitutional reverse discrimination, but the more-limited type of affirmative action in the University of Michigan Law School's admissions program was held to have been constitutional.; Zelman v. Simmons-Harris,: O'Connor joined the majority holding that the use of school vouchers for religious schools did not violate the First Amendment's Establishment Clause.; Bush v. Gore,: O'Connor joined with four other justices on December 12, 2000, to rule on the Bush v. Gore case that ceased challenges to the results of the 2000 presidential election (ruling to stop the ongoing Florida election recount and to allow no further recounts). … Read More This case effectively ended Gore's hopes to become president. Some legal scholars have argued that she should have recused herself from this case, citing several reports that she became upset when the media initially announced that Gore had won Florida, with her husband explaining that they would have to wait another four years before retiring to Arizona.<br /><br /> O'Connor played an important role in other notable cases, such as:; Webster v.

Reproductive Health Services,: This decision upheld as constitutional state restrictions on second trimester abortions that are not necessary to protect maternal health, contrary to the original trimester requirements in Roe v. Wade. Although O'Connor joined the majority, which also included Rehnquist, Scalia, Kennedy and Byron White, in a concurring opinion she refused to explicitly overturn Roe.<br /><br /> On February 22, 2005, with Rehnquist and Stevens (who was senior to her) absent, she presided over oral arguments in the case of Kelo v. City of New London, becoming the first woman to preside over an oral argument before the Court. Read Less On December 12, 2000, The Wall Street Journal reported that O'Connor was reluctant to retire with a Democrat in the presidency: "At an Election Night party at the Washington, D.C. home of Mary Ann Stoessel, widow of former Ambassador Walter Stoessel, the justice's husband, John O'Connor, mentioned to others her desire to step down, according to three witnesses. … Read More But Mr. O'Connor said his wife would be reluctant to retire if a Democrat were in the White House and would choose her replacement.

Justice O'Connor declined to comment."<br /><br /> By 2005, the membership of the Court had been static for eleven years, the second-longest period without a change in the Court's composition in American history. Rehnquist was widely expected to be the first justice to retire during Bush's term, because of his age and his battle with cancer. Read Less Show Less In 2003 Justice O'Connor authored a majority Supreme Court opinion (Grutter v. Bollinger) saying racial affirmative action wouldn't be constitutional permanently but long enough to correct past discrimination â an approximation limit of around 25 years, or until 2028. … Read More In her confirmation hearings and early days on the court, O'Connor was carefully ambiguous on the issue of abortion, as some conservatives questioned her pro-life credentials on the basis of some of her votes in the Arizona legislature. O'Connor generally dissented from 1980s opinions which took an expansive view of Roe v. Wade; she criticized that decision's "trimester approach" sharply in her dissent in 1983's City of Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health. She criticized Roe in Thornburgh v.

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists: "... I dispute not only the wisdom but also the legitimacy of the Court's attempt to discredit and pre-empt state abortion regulation regardless of the interests it serves and the impact it has." In 1989, O'Connor stated during the deliberations over the Webster case that she would not overrule Roe. While on the Court, O'Connor did not vote to strike down any restrictions on abortion until Hodgson v. Minnesota in 1990. Read Less O'Connor was a vigorous defender of the citing of foreign laws in judicial decisions. In a well-publicized October 28, 2003, speech at the Southern Center for International Studies, O'Connor said: The impressions we create in this world are important and can leave their mark... … Read More There is talk today about the "internationalization of legal relations". We are already seeing this in American courts, and should see it increasingly in the future. This does not mean, of course, that our courts can or should abandon their character as domestic institutions.

But conclusions reached by other countries and by the international community, although not formally binding upon our decisions, should at times constitute persuasive authority in American courtsâwhat is sometimes called "transjudicialism".<br /><br /> In the speech she noted the 2002 Court case, Atkins v. Virginia, in which the majority decision (which included her) cited disapproval of the death penalty in Europe as part of its argument. This speech, and the general concept of relying on foreign law and opinion, was widely criticized by conservatives. In May 2004, the U.S. House of Representatives responded by passing a non-binding resolution, the "Reaffirmation of American Independence Resolution", stating that "U.S. judicial decisions should not be based on any foreign laws, court decisions, or pronouncements of foreign governments unless they are relevant to determining the meaning of American constitutional and statutory law." Read Less Show Less However, on July 1, 2005, it was O'Connor who announced her retirement plans. … Read More In her letter to Bush she stated that her retirement from active service would take effect upon the confirmation of her successor.<br /><br /> On July 19, Bush nominated D.C.

Circuit Judge John G. Roberts, Jr. to succeed O'Connor. O'Connor heard the news over the car radio on the way back from a fishing trip. She felt he was an excellent and highly qualified choice â he had argued numerous cases before the Court during her tenure. However, she was terribly disappointed her replacement was not a woman.<br /><br /> On July 21, O'Connor spoke to a Ninth Circuit conference and blamed the televising of Senate Judiciary Committee hearings for escalated conflicts over judges. She expressed sadness over attacks on the independent judiciary, and praised President Reagan for opening doors for women. Read Less O'Connor had been expected to leave the Court before the next term started on October 3, 2005. … Read More However, Rehnquist died on September 3 (she spoke at his funeral). Two days later, Bush withdrew Roberts as his nominee for her seat and instead appointed him to fill the vacant office of Chief Justice. O'Connor agreed to stay on the Court until her replacement was confirmed. On October 3, Bush nominated White House Counsel Harriet Miers to replace O'Connor. After much criticism and controversy over her nomination, on October 27, Miers asked Bush to withdraw her nomination.

Bush accepted her request later the same day. Read Less On October 4, 2005, President Gene Nichol of the College of William & Mary announced that O'Connor had accepted the largely ceremonial role of becoming the 23rd Chancellor of the College, replacing Henry Kissinger, and following in the position held by Margaret Thatcher, Chief Justice Warren Burger, and President George Washington. The Investiture Ceremony was held April 7, 2006. … Read More O'Connor continued to make semi-regular visits to the college until she was succeeded in that post by former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.<br /><br /> In 2005, she wrote a children's book, Chico (ISBN 0-525-47452-8), which gives an autobiographical description of her childhood. Read Less Show Less On March 9, 2006, during a speech at Georgetown University, O'Connor said some political attacks on the independence of the courts pose a direct threat to the constitutional freedoms of Americans.

… Read More She said "any reform of the system is debatable as long as it is not motivated by 'nakedly partisan reasoning' retaliation because congressmen or senators dislike the result of the cases. Courts interpret the law as it was written, not as the congressmen might have wished it was written", and "it takes a lot of degeneration before a country falls into dictatorship, but we should avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings." Read Less On September 19, 2006, she echoed her concerns for an independent judiciary during the dedication address at the Elon University School of Law. On September 28, 2006, O'Connor co-hosted and spoke at a conference at Georgetown University Law Center, Fair and Independent Courts: A Conference on the State of the Judiciary. … Read More Judge William H.

Pryor, Jr., a conservative jurist, has criticized O'Connor's speeches and op-eds for hyperbole and factual inaccuracy, based in part on O'Connor's opinions as to whether judges face a rougher time in the public eye today than in the past.<br /><br /> On November 7, 2007, at a conference on her landmark opinion in Strickland v. Washington (1984) sponsored by the Constitution Project, O'Connor urged the creation of a system for "merit selection for judges". She also highlighted the lack of proper legal representation for many of the poorest defendants. Read Less O'Connor was a member of the 2006 Iraq Study Group, appointed by the U.S. Congress. On May 15, 2006, O'Connor gave the commencement address at the William & Mary School of Law, where she said that judicial independence is "under serious attack at both the state and national level". As of Spring 2006, O'Connor teaches a two-week course called "The Supreme Court" at the University of Arizona's James E. Rogers College of Law every spring semester.

In October 2006, O'Connor sat as a member of panels of the United States Courts of Appeals for the Second, Eighth, and Ninth Circuits, to hear arguments in one-day's cases in each court. On October 31, Bush nominated Third Circuit Judge Samuel Alito to replace O'Connor; Alito was confirmed and sworn in on January 31, 2006. … Read More O'Connor's last Court opinion, Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of New England, written for a unanimous court, was a procedural decision that involved abortion.<br /><br /> She stated that she planned to travel, spend time with family, and, because of her fear of the attacks on judges by legislators, would work with the American Bar Association on a commission to help explain the separation of powers and the role of judges. She also announced that she was working on a new book, which will focus on the early history of the Court. She is a trustee on the board of the Rockefeller Foundation. She stated that she would have preferred to stay on the Court for several more years but stepped down to spend more time with her husband, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease prior to his death in 2009.

O'Connor said it was her plan to follow the tradition of previous justices, who enjoy lifetime appointments. "Most of them get ill and are really in bad shape, which I would've done at the end of the day myself, I suppose, except my husband was ill and I needed to take action there."' Read Less Show Less O'Connor chaired the Jamestown 2007 celebration, commemorating the 400th anniversary of the founding of the colony at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. … Read More Her appearances in Jamestown dovetailed with her appearances and speeches as chancellor at The College of William & Mary nearby. Read Less In the fall of 2007, O'Connor and W. … Read More Scott Bales taught a course at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. Read Less Show Less In 2008, O'Connor was named an inaugural Harry Rathbun Visiting Fellow by the Office for Religious Life at Stanford University. On April 22, 2008, she gave "Harry's Last Lecture on a Meaningful Life" in honor of the former Stanford Law professor who shaped her undergraduate and law careers.

On August 7, 2008, O'Connor and Abdurrahman Wahid, the former President of Indonesia, wrote an editorial in the Financial Times stating their concerns about the threatened imprisonment of Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim. … Read More On November 19, 2008, O'Connor published an introductory essay to a themed issue on judicial accountability in the Denver University Law Review. She calls for a better public understanding of judicial accountability.<br /><br /> On January 26, 2010, O'Connor issued her own polite public dissent to the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision on corporate political spending, telling law students that the court has created an unwelcome new path for wealthy interests to exert influence on judicial elections. Read Less Show Less In 2009, O'Connor founded the 501(c)3 non-profit organization, O'Connor House, dedicated to solving complex issues through civil discourse and collaborative action. In February 2009, O'Connor launched Our Courts, a website she created to offer interactive civics lessons to students and teachers because she was concerned about the lack of knowledge among most young Americans about how their government works.

… Read More She also serves as a co-chair with Lee H. Hamilton for the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools. Read Less On March 3, 2009, O'Connor appeared on the satirical television program The Daily Show with Jon Stewart to promote the website. … Read More In August 2009, added two online interactive games. The initiative expanded, becoming iCivics in May 2010, and continues to offer free lessons plans, games, and interactive videogames for middle and high school educators. Read Less … Prior to O'Connor's appointment to the Court, she was an elected official and judge in Arizona serving as the first female Majority Leader in the United States as the Republican leader in the Arizona Senate. On July 1, 2005, she announced her intention to retire effective upon the confirmation of a successor. Samuel Alito was nominated to take her seat in October 2005, and joined the Court on January 31, 2006. <br /><br />Considered a federalist and a Moderate Republican, O'Connor tended to approach each case narrowly without arguing for sweeping precedents.

She most frequently sided with the court's conservative bloc, although in the latter years of her tenure, she was regarded as having the swing opinion in many cases. Her unanimous confirmation by the Senate in 1981 was supported by most conservatives, led by Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, and liberals, including Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy and women's rights groups like the National Organization for Women. <br /><br />O'Connor was Chancellor of The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, and served on the board of trustees of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She also served on the Board of Trustees for Colonial Williamsburg. Several publications have named O'Connor among the most powerful women in the world. Read Less On August 12, 2009, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor of the United States, by President Barack Obama. … Read More She was born in El Paso, Texas, to Harry Alfred Day, a rancher, and Ada Mae (Wilkey). Her sister was Ann Day, who served in the Arizona Legislature. She grew up on a cattle ranch near Duncan, Arizona where she had to change automobile flat tires herself in dangerous environments.

She later wrote a book with her brother, H. Alan Day, Lazy B: Growing up on a Cattle Ranch in the American West (2002), about her childhood experiences on the ranch. For most of her early schooling, O'Connor lived in El Paso with her maternal grandmother, and attended school at the Radford School for Girls, a private school. Read Less 2010 80 Years Old During the inauguration of Mesa Municipal Court on April 16, 2010, she gracefully received a blessed garland â along with a copy of Bhagavad-GÄ«tÄ As It Is from Dr. Prayag Narayan Misra â a Hare Krishna devotee. … Read More She currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, which is a museum dedicated to the U.S. Constitution. Read Less The Supreme Court Historical Society - Timeline of the Court - Sandra Day O'Connor Sandra Day O'Connor, 1981-2006 SANDRA DAY O’CONNOR was born in El Paso, Texas, on March 26, 1930.

She was graduated from Stanford University in 1950 and Stanford University Law School in 1952. After graduation, O’Connor became a Deputy County Attorney of San Mateo, California. She moved to Germany and worked as a civilian attorney for the United States Army in Frankfurt from 1954 to 1957. Upon her return to the United States, O’Connor engaged in private law practice. She was appointed to the Arizona State Senate in 1969 to fill an unexpired term, and the following year she was elected to the State Senate. Twice re-elected, she was majority leader of the State Senate from 1973 to 1974. O’Connor was elected to the Maricopa County Superior Court in 1975 and appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals in 1979. President Ronald Reagan nominated O’Connor to the Supreme Court of the United States on July 7, 1981. The Senate confirmed the appointment on September 22, 1981, making O’Connor the first female Associate Justice in the history of the Court.

Justice O'Connor served on the Supreme Court for twenty-four years and retired on January 31, 2006. Sandra Day O’Connor - Facts & Summary - HISTORY.com Sandra Day O’Connor A+E Networks Introduction Sandra Day O’Connor (1930-) was an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1981 to 2006, and was the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court. A moderate conservative, she was known for her dispassionate and meticulously researched opinions. For 24 years, Sandra Day O’Connor was a pioneering force on the Supreme Court and will always be remembered as acting as a sturdy guiding hand in the court’s decisions during those years—and serving a swing vote in many important cases. In 2009 her accomplishments were acknowledged by President Obama who honored her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Google Born on March 26, 1930, in El Paso, Texas . Sandra Day O’Connor became the first woman to serve as a justice on the United States Supreme Court in 1981.

Long before she would weight in on some of the nation’s most pressing cases, she spent part of her childhood on her family’s Arizona ranch. O’Connor was adept at riding and assisted with some of ranch duties. Did You Know? On September 21, 1981, O'Connor was confirmed by the U.S. Senate with a vote of 99–0. After graduating from Stanford University in 1950 with a bachelor’s degree in economics, Sandra Day O’Connor attended the university’s law school. She received her degree in 1952 and worked in California and Frankfurt, Germany, before settling in Arizona. In Arizona, Sandra Day O’Connor worked as the assistant attorney general in the 1960s. In 1969, she made the move to state politics with an appointment by Governor Jack Williams to state senate to fill a vacancy. A conservative Republican, O’Connor won re-election twice. In 1974, she took on a different challenge. O’Connor ran for the position of judge in the Maricopa County Superior Court. As a judge, Sandra Day O’Connor developed a solid reputation for being firm, but just.

Outside of the courtroom, she remained involved in Republican politics. In 1979, O’Connor was selected to serve on the state’s court of appeals. Only two years later, President Ronald Reagan nominated her for associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. O’Connor received unanimous approval from the U.S. Senate. She broke new ground for women in the legal field when she was sworn in as the first female justice on the Supreme Court. As a member of the court, Sandra Day O’Connor was considered to be a moderate conservative. She tended to vote in line with her politically conservative nature, but she still considered her cases very carefully. In opposition to the Republican call to reverse the Roe v. Wade decision on abortion rights, O’Connor provided the vote needed to uphold the court’s earlier decision. Many times she focused on the letter of law, not the clamoring of politicians, and voted for what she believed best fit the intentions of the U.S. Constitution. Sandra Day O’Connor retired from the court on January 31, 2006. Part of her reason for retiring was to spend more time with her husband, John Jay O’Connor.

The couple has been married since 1952 and has three sons. She divides her time between Washington , D.C., and Arizona. Biography courtesy of BIO.com ASU News > ASU names College of Law after O'Connor ASU names College of Law after O'Connor Retired justice recognized for her lifelong contributions to public service for Arizona and the nation ASU is naming the College of Law after retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, in honor of her lifelong dedication to public service, her intellectual vigor and her sense of fair-mindedness. The Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at ASU was announced at an April 5 press conference at ASU. Dignitaries attending the press conference included Gov. Janet Napolitano, Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Ruth McGregor and ASU President Michael M. Crow. “We are establishing a permanent and living tribute to Justice O’Connor, one that will honor a native daughter who has provided extraordinary service to her state and country,” Crow says. “This will be a living tribute, because it will continue over generations of students. Justice O’Connor is a quintessential Arizonan, and we want to celebrate that.

We want to associate ourselves and our school with the values that she stands for, including integrity, public service, personal independence, the willingness to take risks, wonderful curiosity, high intellectual standards, and an abiding commitment to justice and the rule of law.” Adds Napolitano: “Sandra Day O’Connor was Arizona’s gift to the national legal community, and it is altogether fitting that we name one of our premier law schools in her honor.” “I am very proud to be associated with the ASU College of Law in this way,” said O’Connor. “The College of Law and has been a pioneer and a leader in clinical law, and was among the first to start a center for law, science and technology. I am delighted, and hope to have many years ahead of a happy association.” “In naming its law school after Justice O'Connor, Arizona State University honors a great Arizonan and one of America’s most distinguished jurists,” said U.S. Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) Arizona Rep. J.D. Hayworth added, “Justice O'Connor's service on the United States Supreme Court has inspired and motivated many women to pursue a career in law.

ASU's new Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law will train many more students, in the tradition of Justice O'Connor, to think independently and impartially, to pursue lofty goals and to place great emphasis on public service." “We are very excited about the opportunity to be the first law school named after a contemporary woman,” says Patricia White, dean of ASU’s College of Law. “One cannot overestimate Justice O’Connor’s importance as a role model for women, and how central her success has been to the acceptance of women in legal practice and the judiciary. “We believe this is the first major law school in the country to be named after a living person solely on the basis of merit. We are choosing to honor Justice O’Connor, and in so doing we honor ourselves. We believe that our association with Justice O’Connor will help us gain recognition of the ASU College of Law, its accomplishments and what it stands for. We are confident that now and in the future students, faculty and others will want to share in this association.” Sandra Day O'Connor spoke to law school classes at ASU during a visit to campus in September 2005.

O’Connor served as the first female associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (1981 – 2006), and she was cited by Forbes magazine in 2004 as the fourth most powerful woman in the United States – and the sixth most powerful in the world. Because of her case-by-case approach to jurisprudence and her relatively moderate political views, O’Connor was the crucial swing vote of the court for many of her final years on the bench. Sandra Day was born March 26, 1930, in El Paso, Texas. She spent her early childhood on the Day family cattle ranch near Duncan, Ariz., but lived with her grandmother in El Paso when she reached school age. She attended Stanford University, where she received a bachelor’s degree in economics in 1950. She continued at Stanford for her law degree, completing the program in two years rather than the customary three, and graduating third out of a class of 102. While in law school, she met John Jay O’Connor III, whom she married in 1952 and with whom she has three sons.

O’Connor served as an Arizona assistant attorney general from 1965 – 1969, when she was appointed to a vacancy in the Arizona Senate. In 1974, she successfully ran for trial judge, a position she held until she was appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals in 1979. On July 7, 1981, President Ronald Reagan nominated her to the Supreme Court. In September 1981, on a 99-0 confirmation vote, O’Connor became the Supreme Court’s 102nd justice and its first female member. During her time on the court, O’Connor was regarded as a consummate compromiser. Her votes were generally conservative, but she frequently surprised observers with her political independence. In her later years on the Supreme Court, O’Connor’s voting record was pivotal. She joined four liberal judges on many 5-4 decisions including those of Grutter v. Bollinger (2003), which affirmed the right of state colleges and universities to use affirmative action in their admissions policies to increase educational opportunities and promote racial diversity on campus. In Rush Prudential HMO Inc. v.

Moran (2002), her vote helped uphold state laws giving people the right to a second doctor’s opinion if their health maintenance organizations tried to deny them treatment. On July 1, 2005, O’Connor announced her retirement from the Supreme Court after 24 years of service on the bench. Sandra Day O'Connor | United States jurist | Britannica.com United States jurist John Paul Stevens Sandra Day O’Connor, née Sandra Day (born March 26, 1930, El Paso , Texas , U.S.), associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1981 to 2006. She was the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court. A moderate conservative , she was known for her dispassionate and meticulously researched opinions. Sandra Day O’Connor. Collection, The Supreme Court of the United States, courtesy of the Supreme Court Historical Society Sandra Day grew up on a large family ranch near Duncan, Arizona . She received undergraduate (1950) and law (1952) degrees from Stanford University , where she met the future chief justice of the United States William Rehnquist .

Upon her graduation she married a classmate, John Jay O’Connor III. Unable to find employment in a law firm because she was a woman—despite her academic achievements, one firm offered her a job as a secretary—she became a deputy district attorney in San Mateo county, California. After a brief tenure , she and her husband, a member of the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General Corps, moved to Germany, where she served as a civil attorney for the army (1954–57). Upon her return to the United States, O’Connor pursued private practice in Maryville, Arizona, becoming an assistant attorney general for the state (1965–69). In 1969 she was elected as a Republican to the Arizona Senate (1969–74), rising to the position of majority leader—the first woman in the United States to occupy such a position. She later was elected a Superior Court judge in Maricopa county, a post she held from 1975 to 1979, when she was appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals in Phoenix.

In July 1981 President Ronald Reagan nominated her to fill the vacancy left on the Supreme Court by the retirement of Justice Potter Stewart . Described by Reagan as a “person for all seasons,” O’Connor was confirmed unanimously by the Senate and was sworn in as the first female justice on September 25, 1981. Statement of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sandra Day O’Connor during her Senate confirmation hearing, … Stock footage courtesy The WPA Film Library O’Connor quickly became known for her pragmatism and was considered, with Justice Anthony Kennedy , a decisive swing vote in the Supreme Court’s decisions. In such disparate fields as election law and abortion rights, she attempted to fashion workable solutions to major constitutional questions, often over the course of several cases. In her decisions in election law she emphasized the importance of equal-protection claims ( Shaw v. Reno [1993]), declared unconstitutional district boundaries that are “unexplainable on grounds other than race” ( Bush v. Vera [1996]), and sided with the court’s more liberal members in upholding the configuration of a congressional district in North Carolina created on the basis of variables including but not limited to race ( Easley v.

Cromartie [2001]). Britannica Stories Scientists Ponder Menopause in Killer Whales In similar fashion, O’Connor’s views on abortion rights were articulated gradually. In a series of rulings, she signaled a reluctance to support any decision that would deny women the right to choose a safe and legal abortion. By “defecting” in part from the conservative majority in Webster v. Reproductive Health Services (1989)—in which the court upheld a Missouri law that prohibited public employees from performing or assisting in abortions not necessary to save a woman’s life and that required doctors to determine the viability of a fetus if it was at least 20 weeks old—she reduced the court’s opinion to a plurality. Through her stewardship in Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey (1992), the court refashioned its position on the right to abortion. The court’s opinion, which O’Connor wrote with Justices Anthony Kennedy and David Souter , reaffirmed the constitutionally protected right to abortion established in Roe v. Wade (1973) but also lowered the standard that legal restrictions on abortion must meet in order to pass constitutional muster.

After Casey, such laws would be considered unconstitutional only if they constituted an “undue burden” on women seeking to obtain an abortion. USA Facts In 2006 O’Connor retired from the Supreme Court and was replaced by Samuel Alito . She was the author of several books, including Lazy B (2002; cowritten with her brother, H. Alan Day), a memoir focusing on her family’s ranch, and Out of Order: Stories from the History of the Supreme Court (2013), a collection of anecdotes charting the genesis and maturation of the Supreme Court. O’Connor also wrote the children’s books Chico (2005) and Finding Susie (2009), both of which were based on her childhood experiences. In 2009 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom .

Question: In 1981 Sandra Day O'Connor became the first female member of what in the United States?
Answer: The US Supreme Court