Sandra Day O'Connor

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. O'Connor was the first woman to serve as a U.S. Supreme Court justice.^[5] A moderate conservative, O'Connor was known for her precisely researched opinions.^[6] Nominated by President Ronald Reagan, she was considered a swing vote for the Rehnquist Court and the first four months of the Roberts Court. 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 Senate.

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
23rd Chancellor of the College of William & Mary
In office October 1, 2005 – February 3, 2012
President	Gene Nichol Taylor Reveley
Preceded by	Henry Kissinger
Succeeded by	Robert Gates
Personal details
Born	Sandra Day (1930-03-26)March 26, 1930 El Paso, Texas, U.S.
Died	December 1, 2023(2023-12-01) (aged 93) Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouse	John Jay O'Connor ​ ​ (m. 1952; died 2009)​
Children	3
Relatives	Ann Day (sister)
Education	Stanford University (BA, LLB)
Awards	Presidential Medal of Freedom (2009)
Signature
Sandra Day O'Connor's voice Justice O'Connor on President Lincoln and the 13th Amendment Recorded February 2, 2015

On July 1, 2005, O'Connor announced her retirement, effective upon the confirmation of a successor.^[8] Samuel Alito was nominated to take her seat in October 2005 and joined the Court on January 31, 2006.

O'Connor usually sided with the Court's conservative bloc but demonstrated an ability to side 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. She wrote in part the per curiam majority opinion in Bush v. Gore and was one of three co-authors of the lead opinion in Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

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 State 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

Nomination and confirmation

 

Supreme Court justice-nominee Sandra Day O'Connor talks with President Ronald Reagan outside the White House, July 15, 1981.

On July 7, 1981, Reagan – who had pledged during his 1980 presidential campaign to appoint the first woman to the Court^[38] – announced he would nominate O'Connor as an associate justice of the Supreme Court to replace the retiring Potter Stewart.^[39] 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.^[30]

Reagan wrote in his diary on July 6, 1981: "Called Judge O'Connor and told her she was my nominee for supreme court. Already the flak is starting and from my own supporters. Right to Life people say she is pro-abortion. She declares abortion is personally repugnant to her. I think she'll make a good justice."^[40] O'Connor told Reagan she did not remember whether she had supported repealing Arizona's law banning abortion.^[41] However, she had cast a preliminary vote in the Arizona State Senate in 1970 in favor of a bill to repeal the state's criminal-abortion statute.^[42] In 1974, O'Connor had opined against a measure to prohibit abortions in some Arizona hospitals.^[42] Anti-abortion and religious groups opposed O'Connor's nomination because they suspected, correctly, she would not be willing to overturn Roe v. Wade.^[43] 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".^[43] Helms, Nickles, and Symms nevertheless voted for confirmation.^[44]

 

O'Connor is sworn in by Chief Justice Warren Burger as her husband John O'Connor looks on.

Reagan formally nominated O'Connor on August 19, 1981.^[45] 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."^[46] 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.^[47]

O'Connor's confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee began on September 9, 1981.^[48] It was the first televised confirmation hearing for a Supreme Court justice.^[49] The confirmation hearing lasted three days and largely focused on the issue of abortion.^[50] When asked, O'Connor refused to telegraph her views on abortion, and she was careful not to leave the impression that she supported abortion rights.^[51] The Judiciary Committee approved O'Connor with seventeen votes in favor and one vote of present.^[50]

On September 21, O'Connor was confirmed by the U.S. Senate with a vote of 99–0.^[39][52] Only Senator Max Baucus of Montana was absent from the vote. He sent O'Connor a copy of A River Runs Through It by way of apology.^[53] In her first year on the Court, she received over 60,000 letters from the public, more than any other justice in history.^[54]

Tenure

O'Connor said she felt a responsibility to demonstrate women could do the job of justice.^[30] She faced some practical concerns, including the lack of a women's restroom near the Courtroom.^[30]

Two years after O'Connor joined the Court, The New York Times published an editorial that mentioned the "nine men"^[55] of the "SCOTUS", or Supreme Court of the United States.^[55] O'Connor responded with a letter to the editor reminding the Times that the Court was no longer composed of nine men and referred to herself as FWOTSC (First Woman On The Supreme Court).^[56]

O'Connor was a proponent of collegiality among justices on the court, often insisting that the justices eat lunch together.^[57]

In 1993, Ruth Bader Ginsburg became the second female Supreme Court justice.^[57] O'Connor said that she felt relief from the media clamor when she no longer was the only woman on the Court.^[57][58] In May 2010, O'Connor warned female Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan about the "unpleasant" process of confirmation hearings.^[59]

Supreme Court jurisprudence

 

Justice O'Connor presents Alberto Gonzales to the audience after swearing him in as U.S. Attorney General, as Becky Gonzales looks on.

Initially, O'Connor's voting record aligned closely with the conservative William Rehnquist (voting with him 87% of the time during her first three years at the Court).^[60] From that time until 1998, O'Connor's alignment with Rehnquist ranged from 93.4% to 63.2%, hitting above 90% in three of those years.^[61] In nine of her first 16 years on the Court, O'Connor voted with Rehnquist more than with any other justice.^[61]

Later on, as the Court's make-up became more conservative (e.g., Anthony Kennedy replacing Lewis Powell, and Clarence Thomas replacing Thurgood Marshall), O'Connor often became the swing vote on the Court. However, she usually disappointed the Court's more liberal bloc in contentious 5–4 decisions: from 1994 to 2004, she joined the traditional conservative bloc of Rehnquist, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, and Thomas 82 times; she joined the liberal bloc of John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Stephen Breyer only 28 times.^[62]

O'Connor's relatively small^[63] shift away from conservatives on the Court seems to have been due at least in part to Thomas' views.^[64] 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.^[65] In the 1992 term, O'Connor did not join a single one of Thomas's dissents.^[66]

Some notable cases in which O'Connor joined the majority in a 5–4 decision were:

• McConnell v. FEC, 540 U.S. 93 (2003), upholding the constitutionality of most of the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance bill regulating "soft money" contributions.^[67]
• Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 306 (2003) and Gratz v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 244 (2003), O'Connor wrote the opinion of the Court in Grutter and joined the majority in Gratz. 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.
• Lockyer v. Andrade, 538 U.S. 63 (2003): O'Connor wrote the majority opinion, with the four conservative justices concurring, that a 50-year to life sentence without parole for petty shoplifting a few children's videotapes under California's three strikes law was not cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment because there was no "clearly established" law to that effect. Leandro Andrade, a Latino nine-year Army veteran and father of three, will be eligible for parole in 2046 at age 87.
• Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, 536 U.S. 639 (2002), O'Connor joined the majority holding that the use of school vouchers for religious schools did not violate the First Amendment's Establishment Clause.
• United States v. Lopez, 514 U.S. 549 (1995): O'Connor joined a majority holding unconstitutional the Gun-Free School Zones Act as beyond Congress' Commerce Clause power.
• Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98 (2000), 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). This case effectively ended Al 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.^[68] O'Connor expressed surprise that the decision became controversial.^[69] Some people in Washington stopped shaking her hand after the decision, and Arthur Miller confronted her about it at the Kennedy Center.^[69]

O'Connor played an important role in other notable cases, such as:

• Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, 492 U.S. 490 (1989): 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.

On February 22, 2005, with Rehnquist and Stevens (who were senior to her) absent, she became the senior justice presiding over oral arguments in the case of Kelo v. City of New London and becoming the first woman to do so before the Court.^[70]

First Amendment

O'Connor was unpredictable in many of her court decisions, especially those regarding First Amendment Establishment Clause issues. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said, "O'Connor was a conservative, but she saw the complexity of church-state issues and tried to choose a course that respected the country's religious diversity" (Hudson 2005). O'Connor voted in favor of religious institutions, such as in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, Mitchell v. Helms, and Rosenberger v. University of Virginia. Conversely, in Lee v. Weisman she was part of the majority in the case that saw religious prayer and pressure to stand in silence at a graduation ceremony as part of a religious act that coerced people to support or participate in religion, which the Establishment Clause strictly prohibits. This is consistent with a similar case, Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe, involving prayer at a school football game. In this case, O'Connor joined the majority opinion that stated prayer at school football games violates the Establishment Clause. O'Connor was the first justice to articulate the "no endorsement" standard for the Establishment Clause.^[71] In Lynch v. Donnelly, O'Connor signed onto a five-justice majority opinion holding that a nativity scene in a public Christmas display did not violate the First Amendment. She penned a concurrence in that case, opining that the crèche did not violate the Establishment Clause because it did not express an endorsement or disapproval of any religion.^[71]

Fourth Amendment

According to 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."^[72] Washington College of 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."^[73] O'Connor once quoted the social contract theory of John Locke as influencing her views on the reasonableness and constitutionality of government action.^[74]

Cases involving race

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 to counteract racial inequality. In the 1991 case Freeman v. Pitts, 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. Law professor Herman Schwartz criticized these rulings, writing that in both cases "both the fact and effects of segregation were still present".^[61]

In McCleskey v. Kemp in 1987, O'Connor joined a 5–4 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.^[61][75][76]

In 1996's Shaw v. Hunt and Shaw v. Reno, O'Connor joined a Rehnquist opinion, following an earlier precedent from an opinion 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 12 from North Carolina, a state that had not had any Black representative since Reconstruction, despite being approximately 20% Black^[61] – 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".^[77]

Law professor Herman Schwartz called O'Connor "the Court's leader in its assault on racially oriented affirmative action",^[61] although she joined with the Court in upholding the constitutionality of race-based admissions to universities.^[38]

In 2003, O'Connor authored a majority Supreme Court opinion (Grutter v. Bollinger) saying racial affirmative action should not be constitutional permanently, but long enough to correct past discrimination – with an approximate limit of around 25 years.^[78]

Abortion

The Christian right element in the Reagan coalition strongly supported him in 1980, in the belief that he would appoint Supreme Court justices to overturn Roe v. Wade. They were astonished and dismayed when his first appointment was O'Connor, who they feared would tolerate abortion. They worked hard to defeat her confirmation but failed.^[79] 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 anti-abortion credentials based on some of her votes in the Arizona legislature.^[43] 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."^[80] In 1989, O'Connor stated during the deliberations over the Webster case that she would not overrule Roe.^[81] While on the Court, O'Connor did not vote to strike down any restrictions on abortion until Hodgson v. Minnesota in 1990.^[80]

O'Connor allowed certain limits to be placed on access to abortion, but supported the right to abortion established by Roe. In Planned Parenthood v. Casey, O'Connor used a test she had originally developed in City of Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health to limit the holding of Roe v. Wade, opening up a legislative portal where a State could enact measures so long as they did not place an "undue burden" on a woman's right to an abortion. Casey revised downward the standard of scrutiny federal courts would apply to state abortion restrictions, a major departure from Roe. However, it preserved Roe's core constitutional precept: that the Fourteenth Amendment implies and protects a woman's fundamental right to control the outcomes of her reproductive actions. Writing the plurality opinion for the Court, O'Connor, along with Kennedy and Souter, famously declared: "At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life. Beliefs about these matters could not define the attributes of personhood were they formed under compulsion of the State."^[82]

Commentary and analysis

O'Connor's case-by-case approach routinely placed her in the center of the Court and drew both criticism and praise. Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer, for example, described her as lacking a judicial philosophy and instead displaying "political positioning embedded in a social agenda."^[83] Conservative commentator Ramesh Ponnuru wrote that, even though O'Connor "has voted reasonably well", her tendency to issue very case-specific rulings "undermines the predictability of the law and aggrandizes the judicial role."^[84]

Law clerks serving the Court in 2000 speculated that the decision she reached in Bush v. Gore was based on a desire to appear fair, rather than on any legal rationale, pointing to a memo she sent out the night before the decision was issued that used entirely different logic to reach the same result. They also characterized her approach to cases as deciding on "gut feelings".^[69]

Other activities while serving on the Court

External videos
Interview with O'Connor on The Majesty of the Law, April 9, 2003, C-SPAN
Presentation by O'Connor on Chico, September 18, 2005, C-SPAN

In 2003, she wrote a book titled The Majesty of the Law: Reflections of a Supreme Court Justice (ISBN 0-375-50925-9).^[85] In 2005, she wrote a children's book, Chico: A True Story from the Childhood of the First Woman Supreme Court Justice, named for her favorite horse, which offered an autobiographical depiction of her childhood.^[86]

Retirement

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. 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."^[87]

 

Justice O'Connor and her husband John O'Connor with President George W. Bush in May 2004

 

Justice O'Connor's letter to Bush, dated July 1, 2005, announcing her retirement

By 2005, the composition of the Court had been unchanged for eleven years, the second-longest period in American history without any such change. Rehnquist was widely expected to be the first justice to retire during Bush's term, owing to his age and his battle with cancer, although rumors of O'Connor's possible retirement circulated as well.^[88]

On July 1, 2005, O'Connor announced her intention to retire. In her letter to Bush, she stated that her retirement from active service would take effect upon the confirmation of her successor.^[88] Her letter did not provide a reason for her departure; however, a Supreme Court spokeswoman confirmed O'Connor was leaving to spend time with her husband.^[88]

On July 19, Bush nominated D.C. Circuit Judge John Roberts to succeed O'Connor. O'Connor heard the news over the car radio on the way back from a fishing trip.^[89] She described Roberts soon after the nomination as "good in every way, except he's not a woman".^[90]

O'Connor had expected to leave the Court before the next term started on October 3, 2005.^[91][92] However, Rehnquist died on September 3,^[93] creating an immediate vacancy on the Court.^[94] Two days later, Bush withdrew Roberts as his nominee for her seat and instead appointed him to fill the vacant office of Chief Justice.^[95] O'Connor agreed to stay on the Court until her replacement was named and confirmed.^[95] She spoke at the late chief justice's funeral.^[96] On October 3, Bush nominated White House Counsel Harriet Miers to replace O'Connor.^[97] After much criticism and controversy over her nomination, on October 27, Miers asked Bush to withdraw her nomination.^[98] Bush accepted, reopening the search for O'Connor's successor.^[98]

The continued delays in confirming a successor further extended O'Connor's time on the Court.^[92] She continued to hear oral argument on cases, including cases dealing with controversial issues such as physician-assisted suicide and abortion.^[92] O'Connor's last Court opinion, Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of New England, written for a unanimous court, was a procedural decision that involved a challenge to a New Hampshire abortion law.^[99]

On October 31, Bush nominated Third Circuit Judge Samuel Alito to replace O'Connor;^[100] Alito was confirmed by a 58–42 vote and was sworn in on January 31, 2006.^[101][102] After retiring, she continued to hear cases and rendered over a dozen opinions in federal appellate courts across the country, filling in as a substitute judge when vacations or vacancies left their three-member panels understaffed.^[103] On Alito's nomination, O'Connor said, "I've often said, it's wonderful to be the first to do something but I didn't want to be the last. If I didn't do a good job, it might've been the last and indeed when I retired, I was not replaced, then, by a woman which gives one pause to think 'Oh, what did I do wrong that led to this.'"^[104]

Post-Supreme Court career

 

O'Connor in 2008 with Harvard Law School dean Elena Kagan. Kagan later became the fourth female justice on the Court.

In her retirement, O'Connor continued to speak and organize conferences on the issue of judicial independence.^[105] During a March 2006 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. She said "Any reform of the system is debatable as long as it is not motivated by retaliation for decisions that political leaders disagree with", also noting that she was "against judicial reforms driven by nakedly partisan reasoning."^[106] "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."^[106]

On November 19, 2008, O'Connor published an introductory essay on a themed judicial accountability issue in the Denver University Law Review. She called for a better public understanding of judicial accountability.^[107] On November 7, 2007, at a conference on her landmark opinion in Strickland v. Washington (1984) sponsored by the Constitution Project, O'Connor highlighted the lack of proper legal representation for many of the poorest defendants.^[108] O'Connor also urged the creation of a system for "merit selection for judges", a cause for which she had frequently advocated.^[108][109]

On August 7, 2008, O'Connor and Abdurrahman Wahid, former President of Indonesia, wrote an editorial in the Financial Times stating concerns about the threatened imprisonment of Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.^[110]

In October 2008, O'Connor spoke on racial equality in education at a conference hosted by the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School. Later in the conference, she was awarded the Charles Hamilton Houston Justice Award alongside Desmond Tutu and Dolores Huerta.^[111]

Following the Court's Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision on corporate political spending, O'Connor offered measured criticism of the decision, telling Georgetown law students and lawyers, "that the Court has created an unwelcome new path for wealthy interests to exert influence on judicial elections."^[112]

O'Connor argued in favor of President Barack Obama naming the replacement for Antonin Scalia in February 2016, mere days after Scalia's death, opposing Republican arguments that the next president should get to fill the vacancy. She said, "I think we need somebody there to do the job now and let's get on with it"; and that "[y]ou just have to pick the best person you can under the circumstances, as the appointing authority must do. It's an important position and one that we care about as a nation and as a people. And I wish the president well as he makes choices and goes down that line. It's hard."^[113]

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.^[114][115]

O'Connor reflected on her time on the Supreme Court by saying that she regretted the Court hearing the Bush v. Gore case in 2000 because it "stirred up the public" and "gave the Court a less-than-perfect reputation." She told the Chicago Tribune that "Maybe the Court should have said, 'We're not going to take it, goodbye,' ... It turned out the election authorities in Florida hadn't done a real good job there and kind of messed it up. And probably the Supreme Court added to the problem at the end of the day."^[116][117]

Activities and memberships

As a retired Supreme Court justice, O'Connor continued to receive a full salary, maintained a staffed office with at least one law clerk, and heard cases on a part-time basis in federal district courts and courts of appeals as a visiting judge.^[118] By 2008, O'Connor had sat for cases with the 2nd, 8th, and 9th Circuits.^[119][120] O'Connor heard an Arizona voting rights case which the Supreme Court later reviewed.^[118] In Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, a 7–2 majority affirmed O'Connor and the rest of 9th Circuit panel, and struck down a provision of Arizona's voting registration law.^[121] O'Connor hired a law clerk for the October 2015 term, but did not hire a law clerk for the subsequent term.^[122][123]

 

The first four women Supreme Court justices: O'Connor, Sonia Sotomayor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Elena Kagan, October 1, 2010. O'Connor was retired when the photograph was taken.

O'Connor was elected as an honorary fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration in 2005.^[124] In October that year, O'Connor accepted the largely ceremonial role of becoming the 23rd Chancellor of the College of William & Mary.^[125] O'Connor continued in the role until 2012.^[126][29] O'Connor was a member of the 2006 Iraq Study Group, appointed by the U.S. Congress.^[127] From 2006, she was a trustee on the board of the Rockefeller Foundation.^[128][129] O'Connor chaired the Jamestown 2007 celebration, commemorating the 400th anniversary of the founding of the colony at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607.^{[citation needed]} The Sandra Day O'Connor Project on the State of the Judiciary, named for O'Connor, held annual conferences from 2006 through 2008 on the independence of the judiciary.^[130] O'Connor was a member of both the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.^[5][7]

Teaching

In 2006, O'Connor taught a course on the Supreme Court at the University of Arizona's James E. Rogers College of Law as a distinguished jurist in residence.^[131] On April 5, 2006, Arizona State University named its law school the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law in her honor.^[132]

Publishing

External videos
Presentation by O'Connor on Out of Order, March 18, 2013, C-SPAN
Interview with O'Connor on Out of Order, August 30, 2014, C-SPAN

O'Connor wrote the 2013 book Out of Order: Stories from the History of the Supreme Court.^[133]

Public speaking engagements

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".^[134] 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.^[135] On September 17, 2014, O'Connor appeared on the television show Jeopardy! and provided a couple of video answers to the category 'Supreme Court' which appeared on the show. On the same day in Concord, New Hampshire, she gave a talk alongside her former colleague Justice David Souter about the importance of meaningful civics education in the United States.^[136]

Non-profits and philanthropic activity

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. She also served as a co-chair with Lee H. Hamilton for the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools.^[137] On March 3, 2009, O'Connor appeared on the satirical television program The Daily Show with Jon Stewart to promote the website. In August 2009, the website added two online interactive games.^[138] The initiative expanded, becoming iCivics in May 2010 offering free lesson plans, games, and interactive videogames for middle and high school educators.^[139] By 2015, the iCivics games had 72,000 teachers as registered users and its games had been played 30 million times.^[140]

O'Connor served on the board of trustees of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, a museum dedicated to the U.S. Constitution.^[141][142] By November 2015, O'Connor had transitioned to being a trustee emeritus for the center.^[143] In April 2013, the board of directors of Justice at Stake, a national judicial reform advocacy organization, announced that O'Connor would be joining the organization as honorary chair.^[144]

In 2009, O'Connor founded the 501(c)(3) non-profit organization now known as the Sandra Day O'Connor Institute. Its programs are dedicated to promoting civil discourse, civic engagement, and civics education.^[145][146] In 2019, her former adobe residence in Arizona, curated by the O'Connor Institute, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.^[147] In 2022, the Institute launched Civics for Life, its multigenerational digital platform.^[148]

O'Connor was a member and president of the Junior League of Phoenix.^[149]

O'Connor was a founding co-chair of the National Advisory Board at the National Institute for Civil Discourse (NICD).^[150] The institute was created at the University of Arizona after the 2011 shooting of former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords that killed six people and wounded 13 others.^[151]

Personal life, illness and death

Upon her appointment to the Supreme Court, O'Connor and her husband moved to the Kalorama area of Washington, D.C. The O'Connors became active in the Washington, D.C., social scene. O'Connor played tennis and golf in her spare time.^[17] She was a baptized member of the Episcopal Church.^[152]

O'Connor was successfully treated for breast cancer in 1988, and she also had her appendix removed that year.^[153] That same year, John O'Connor left the Washington, D.C., law firm of Miller & Chevalier for a practice that required him to split his time between Washington, D.C., and Phoenix.^[17]

Her husband suffered from Alzheimer's disease for nearly 20 years, until his death in 2009,^[32] and she became involved in raising awareness of the disease. After retiring from the Court, O'Connor moved back to Phoenix, Arizona.^[16]

Around 2013, O'Connor's friends and colleagues noticed that she was becoming more forgetful and less talkative.^{[22]: 399–400} By 2017, back problems led to her needing to use a wheelchair, and to her moving to an assisted living facility.^[22]: 401 In October 2018, O'Connor announced her effective retirement from public life after disclosing that she had been diagnosed with the early stages of Alzheimer's-like dementia.^[29]

On May 7, 2016, her younger sister, Ann Day, was killed in a car accident in Tucson, Arizona, as a result of a collision with a drunk driver.^[154]

On December 1, 2023, O'Connor died in Phoenix, aged 93, due to complications related to advanced dementia and a respiratory illness.^{[155][105][156]} After her death, Chief Justice John Roberts called her "an eloquent advocate for civil education" and a "fiercely independent defender of the rule of law" in a public statement.^[157] President Joe Biden said she was an "American icon", dedicated to public service and the "bedrock American principle of an independent judiciary."^[158] iCivics board chairman Larry Kramer said that O'Connor was "kind and generous" and relayed that iCivics was her "brainchild".^[157]

O'Connor will lie in repose in the Great Hall of the Supreme Court on December 18, 2023.^[159]

Legacy and awards

Main article: List of awards and honors received by Sandra Day O'Connor

O'Connor was particularly remembered for being the first woman on the Court, and for functioning as the swing vote in the 5–4 decision in Bush v. Gore, which handed the presidency to George W. Bush.^[160][161] Overall, she began her tenure on the court as a Reaganite but would later attempt to steer the court toward decisions that better aligned with public opinion.^[105][162] O'Connor's jurisprudential legacy was largely undone by the appointment of Samuel Alito as her successor.^[163][162]

See also

•  Arizona portal
•  Biography portal
•  Law portal
•  Politics portal

• List of justices of the Supreme Court of the United States
• List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 8)
• List of United States Supreme Court justices by time in office
• List of United States federal judges by longevity of service
• United States Supreme Court cases during the Burger Court
• United States Supreme Court cases during the Rehnquist Court
• United States Supreme Court cases during the Roberts Court
• List of female state supreme court justices

Explanatory notes

1. She stated that she had graduated third in her law school class,^[26] though Stanford's official position is that the law school did not rank students in 1952.^[27]

References

Citations

1. . www.supremecourt.gov. Archived from the original on February 6, 2020. Retrieved February 17, 2020.
2. "The date a Member of the Court took his/her Judicial oath (the Judiciary Act provided 'That the Justices of the Supreme Court, and the district judges, before they proceed to execute the duties of their respective offices, shall take the following oath ...') is here used as the date of the beginning of his/her service, for until that oath is taken he/she is not vested with the prerogatives of the office." Source: About the Court > Justices > Justices 1789 to Present; April 15, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
3. . Archived from the original on February 12, 2016. Retrieved February 20, 2016.
4. "Judges of the Superior Court Of Arizona in Maricopa County" (PDF). ww.superiorcourt.maricopa.gov. November 2005. (PDF) from the original on October 26, 2020. Retrieved May 26, 2017.
5. Weisman, Steven R. (July 7, 1981). "Reagan Nominating Woman, an Arizona Appeals Judge, to Serve on Supreme Court". The New York Times. from the original on October 11, 2000. Retrieved September 10, 2009.
6. "Sandra Day O'Connor | Biography, Accomplishments, & Facts | Britannica". www.britannica.com. May 11, 2023. from the original on June 29, 2023. Retrieved May 22, 2023.
7. . Federal Judicial Center. Archived from the original on March 6, 2004. Retrieved March 21, 2006.
8. Stevenson, R. W. (July 1, 2005). "O'Connor, First Woman Supreme Court Justice, Resigns After 24 Years". The New York Times. from the original on May 1, 2011. Retrieved September 10, 2005.
9. McCaslin, John (November 7, 2001). "Power Women". McCaslin's Beltway Beat. Washington, D.C.: Townhall.com. from the original on April 29, 2011. Retrieved June 15, 2009. ... Ladies' Home Journal, ... ranks the 30 Most Powerful Women based on cultural clout, financial impact, achievement, visibility, influence, intellect, political know-how and staying power. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton ranks 5th on the list behind Miss Winfrey, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Martha Stewart and Barbara Walters
10. . Forbes. August 20, 2004. Archived from the original on March 15, 2009. Retrieved March 4, 2009.
11. "Presidential Medal of Freedom". www.cbsnews.com. August 12, 2009. from the original on April 9, 2016. Retrieved February 11, 2021.
12. Murray, Ashley (December 2023). "Sandra Day O'Connor, who made history as the first woman on the Supreme Court, dies at 93". Oregon Capital Chronicle.
13. "Sandra Day O'Connor Fast Facts". CNN. December 1, 2023. from the original on May 19, 2023. Retrieved December 1, 2023.
14. See "Sandra Day O'Connor". Oyez. from the original on March 17, 2007. Retrieved June 27, 2017.
15. "Book Discussion on Sisters in Law" Presenter: Linda Hirshman, author. Politics and Prose Bookstore. BookTV, Washington. September 3, 2015. 13 minutes in. Retrieved September 12, 2015 C-Span website March 5, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
16. Heilpern, John (April 2013). "Sandra Day O'Connor on Growing Up with Guns and Her Views on Assault Weapons". The Hive. from the original on September 23, 2016. Retrieved August 24, 2017.
17. Kamen, Al; Williams, Marjorie (June 11, 1989). "How Sandra Day O'Connor became the most powerful woman in 1980s America". The Washington Post. from the original on March 30, 2016. Retrieved October 29, 2017.
18. . Archived from the original on May 9, 2016. Retrieved May 8, 2016.
19. "LAZY B: Growing Up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest". Publishers Weekly. December 10, 2001. from the original on January 28, 2023. Retrieved December 1, 2023.
20. Scanlon, Michael (May 13, 1987). "Radford's most famous alumna drops in for a talk". El Paso Times. from the original on November 8, 2021. Retrieved January 8, 2020.
21. Washington Valdez, Diana (July 2, 2005). "Hometown stars – Sandra Day O'Connor". El Paso Times. from the original on April 25, 2010. Retrieved December 19, 2010.
22. Thomas, Evan (2019). First: Sandra Day O'Connor. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0399589287.
23. Cool, Kevin (January 1, 2006). "Front and Center". Stanford Alumni Magazine. Stanford University. from the original on May 3, 2013. Retrieved June 4, 2018.
24. . Fox News Channel. July 1, 2005. Archived from the original on May 23, 2007. Retrieved December 18, 2006.
25. Biskupic, Joan. Sandra Day O'Connor: How the First Woman on the Supreme Court became its most influential justice. New York: Harper Collins, 2005.
26. . amplify.com. Archived from the original on November 6, 2018. Retrieved June 13, 2013.
27. Kornmiller, Debbie (July 10, 2005). . Arizona Daily Star. Archived from the original on December 6, 2005. Retrieved June 13, 2013.
28. "Sandra Day O'Connor's Peninsula Ties". San Mateo Daily Journal. from the original on June 7, 2019. Retrieved June 4, 2018.
29. Haag, Matt (October 23, 2018). "Sandra Day O'Connor, First Woman on Supreme Court, Reveals Dementia Diagnosis". The New York Times. from the original on October 25, 2018. Retrieved October 26, 2018.
30. "'Out Of Order' At The Court: O'Connor On Being The First Female Justice". Fresh Air. March 5, 2013. from the original on March 6, 2013. Retrieved March 5, 2013.
31. Baughman, J. (Ed.). (2001). O'Connor, Sandra Day 1930–. American Decades, 9. September 21, 2016.
32. "John J. O'Connor III, 79; husband of Supreme Court justice". The Washington Post. November 12, 2009. from the original on September 13, 2014. Retrieved October 4, 2012.
33. Phelps, S. (Ed.). (2002). O'Connor, Sandra Day (1930– ). World of Criminal Justice, September 20, 2016.
34. . apps.azlibrary.gov. Archived from the original on May 10, 2017. Retrieved March 31, 2017.
35. Williams, Marjorie; Williams, Marjorie (March 29, 2016). "How Sandra Day O'Connor became the most powerful woman in 1980s America". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. from the original on March 30, 2016. Retrieved March 31, 2017.
36. (PDF). Arizona Secretary of State. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 21, 2016. Retrieved February 25, 2016.
37. "Sandra D. O'Connor". www.azcourts.gov. from the original on December 30, 2016. Retrieved March 31, 2017.
38. James Taranto; Leonard Leo (2004). Presidential Leadership. Wall Street Journal Books. ISBN 978-0743272261. Retrieved October 20, 2008.
39. "1981 Year in Review: Reagan Foreign Policy Speech/O'Connor Appointed to Supreme Court". from the original on June 29, 2019. Retrieved June 29, 2019.
40. Transcript (January 30, 2008). "Transcript of GOP debate at Reagan Library". CNN. June 30, 2008. from the original on May 19, 2010. Retrieved August 27, 2009.
41. Greenburg (2007), p. 223
42. Greenhouse, Linda (2006). Becoming Justice Blackmun: Harry Blackmun's Supreme Court Journey. Henry Holt and Company. p. 141. ISBN 978-0805080575.
43. Greenburg (2007), p. 222
44. "CQ Senate Votes 271–278" (PDF). CQ Almanac. 47-S. 1981. (PDF) from the original on August 7, 2021. Retrieved November 8, 2021.
45. U.S. National Archives. "Reagan's Nomination of O'Connor". from the original on July 13, 2014. Retrieved August 19, 2014.
46. Julia Malone (July 8, 1981). "A closer look at nation's first woman high court nominee". Christian Science Monitor. from the original on June 29, 2016. Retrieved May 20, 2016.
47. Julia Malone (September 3, 1981). "New Right strategy: let's drag out O'Connor's confirmation hearing; Focus: abortion, women's rights, school prayer". Christian Science Monitor. from the original on June 29, 2016. Retrieved May 23, 2016.
48. Greenhouse, Linda (September 10, 1981). "O'Connor Hearings Open on a Note of Friendship". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. from the original on October 29, 2017. Retrieved June 20, 2017.
49. "Cameras in the Court". c-span.org. from the original on October 28, 2017. Retrieved October 27, 2017.
50. Greenhouse, Linda (September 16, 1981). "Panel Approves Judge O'Connor". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. from the original on October 28, 2017. Retrieved June 20, 2017.
51. Greenburg (2007), pp. 222–223
52. "Reagan's Nomination of O'Connor". archives.gov. from the original on November 8, 2015. Retrieved November 7, 2015.
53. Lowe, Rebecca (August 30, 2011). "Supremely confident: the legacy of Sandra Day O'Connor". The Guardian. from the original on March 18, 2017. Retrieved December 16, 2016.
54. Associated Press (July 1, 2005). "Sandra Day O'Connor: The reluctant justice". nbc.com. from the original on March 11, 2016. Retrieved May 20, 2017.
55. "Topics: In the Name of the LawOPICS: Legal ABC's". The New York Times. September 29, 1983. ISSN 0362-4331. from the original on February 2, 2017. Retrieved May 22, 2017.
56. "High Court's '9 Men' Were a Surprise to One". The New York Times. October 12, 1983. ISSN 0362-4331. from the original on January 24, 2018. Retrieved June 19, 2017.
57. Totenberg, Nina (March 15, 2019). "From Triumph To Tragedy, 'First' Tells Story Of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor". NPR.org. from the original on February 17, 2020. Retrieved February 17, 2020.
58. "Women on the Bench | C-SPAN.org". www.c-span.org. from the original on August 6, 2020. Retrieved January 29, 2020.
59. Clarke, Suzan (May 27, 2010). "Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor Backs Elena Kagan Nomination". ABC News. from the original on February 1, 2011. Retrieved December 19, 2010.
60. Greenburg (2007), p. 68
61. Schwartz, Herman (April 12, 1998). "O'Connor as a 'Centrist'? Not When Minorities Are Involved". Los Angeles Times. from the original on June 8, 2016. Retrieved February 18, 2020.
62. (PDF). Harvard Law Review. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University. 118 (1): 521. November 2004. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 27, 2006. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
63. Lane, Charles (November 1, 2004). "Justices Too Tightlipped on Their Health?". The Washington Post. p. A19. from the original on May 1, 2011. Retrieved December 19, 2010.
64. Greenburg (2007), pp. 122–123
65. Greenburg (2007), pp. 123, 134
66. Greenburg (2007), p. 123
67. "Cases in Which Sandra Day O'Connor Cast the Decisive Vote". American Civil Liberties Union. from the original on April 21, 2019. Retrieved April 21, 2019.
68. Neumann, Richard K. Jr. (Spring 2003). . Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics. Washington D.C.: Georgetown University: 34. Archived from the original on June 15, 2006.
69. Margolick, David (March 19, 2014). "Behind the aftermath of the 2000 U.S. election". Vanity Fair. from the original on January 26, 2021. Retrieved July 3, 2019.
70. Glass, Andrew (September 21, 2016). "Senate confirms first female Supreme Court justice, Sept. 21, 1981". Politico. from the original on August 6, 2020. Retrieved March 15, 2020.
71. S.M. (October 8, 2013). "Endorsing the endorsement test". The Economist. from the original on December 20, 2016. Retrieved June 21, 2017.
72. Rosen, Jeffrey (November 28, 2010). "The TSA is invasive, annoying – and unconstitutional". The Washington Post. from the original on December 5, 2010. Retrieved August 22, 2017.
73. Taslitz, Andrew E. (October 1, 2006). Reconstructing the Fourth Amendment: A History of Search and Seizure, 1789–1868. New York City: NYU Press. p. 83. ISBN 978-0814783153. from the original on November 8, 2021. Retrieved November 20, 2020.
74. "Regula Pro Lege, Si Deficit Lex: The Latin Sapience of High Judges". The Federal Bar Association. from the original on November 19, 2016. Retrieved November 17, 2016.
75. "McCleskey v. Kemp". New Georgia Encyclopedia. from the original on May 14, 2013. Retrieved November 8, 2021.
76. David Baldus, et al., "In The Post-Furman Era: An Empirical And Legal Overview, With Recent Findings From Philadelphia", 83 Cornell Law Rev. 1638 (1998)
77. "Shaw v. Reno, 509 U.S. 630 (1993)". Justia Law. from the original on December 1, 2023. Retrieved December 1, 2023.
78. Justice O'Connor: affirmative action should continue, archived from the original on January 18, 2012, retrieved March 9, 2012
79. Flowers, Prudence (January 2019). "'A Prolife Disaster': The Reagan Administration and the Nomination of Sandra Day O'Connor". Journal of Contemporary History. Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Journals. 53 (2): 391–414. doi:10.1177/0022009417699865. S2CID 159917418.
80. Greenhouse, Linda (2006). Becoming Justice Blackmun. New York City: Times Books. pp. 196–197. ISBN 0805080570.
81. Greenburg (2007), p. 80
82. Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833, 851 (1992).
83. Krauthammer, Charles (July 8, 2005). "Philosophy for a Judge". The Washington Post. from the original on October 26, 2005. Retrieved November 18, 2005.
84. Ponnuru, Ramesh (June 30, 2003). . National Review. Archived from the original on September 11, 2005. Retrieved March 18, 2007.
85. "The Majesty of the Law". pbs.org. PBS. June 9, 2003. from the original on August 20, 2020. Retrieved March 15, 2020.
86. ABC News (June 1, 2006). "Sandra Day O'Connor Writes Children's Book". ABC News. from the original on May 12, 2018. Retrieved May 11, 2018.
87. . The Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics. 2003. Archived from the original on June 15, 2006. Retrieved November 18, 2005.
88. Deane, Daniela; Branigin, William; Barbash, Fred (July 1, 2005). "Supreme Court Justice O'Connor Resigns". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. from the original on December 19, 2017. Retrieved October 27, 2017.
89. Landers, Rich (October 2005). "Guiding Sandra Day O'Connor". Field & Stream. CX: 21 – via ProQuest.
90. Bumiller, Elisabeth (July 21, 2005). "Court in Transition: The President; An Interview By, Not With, The President". The New York Times. Retrieved December 2, 2023.
91. "First woman to serve as US supreme court justice retires". The Guardian. Associated Press. July 1, 2005. ISSN 0261-3077. from the original on October 28, 2017. Retrieved October 27, 2017.
92. "O'Connor to remain crucial vote in major cases". msnbc.com. Associated Press. October 27, 2005. from the original on October 28, 2017. Retrieved October 27, 2017.
93. "Chief Justice Rehnquist dies of thyroid cancer". The Denver Post. September 3, 2005. from the original on October 28, 2017. Retrieved October 27, 2017.
94. Sandalow, Marc (September 5, 2005). "The Supreme Court in Transition: The death of William Rehnquist / Chief justice's passing provides Bush with major opportunity". San Francisco Chronicle. from the original on October 28, 2017. Retrieved October 27, 2017.
95. "Bush nominates Roberts as chief justice". www.cnn.com. September 6, 2005. from the original on February 4, 2017. Retrieved October 28, 2017.
96. Alfano, Sean (September 7, 2005). "Rehnquist Given Final Farewell". from the original on October 28, 2017. Retrieved October 27, 2017.
97. "Bush picks White House counsel for Supreme Court". CNN. October 4, 2005. from the original on October 29, 2017. Retrieved October 28, 2017.
98. Babington, Charles; Fletcher, Michael A. (October 28, 2005). "Miers, Under Fire From Right, Withdrawn as Court Nominee". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. from the original on November 7, 2017. Retrieved October 28, 2017.
99. "The Supreme Court 2005 Term – Leading Cases" (PDF). Harvard Law Review. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Law School. 120: 295. 2006. (PDF) from the original on October 14, 2017. Retrieved October 28, 2017.
100. "Bush nominates Alito to Supreme Court". CNN. November 1, 2005. from the original on October 28, 2017. Retrieved October 28, 2017.
101. "U.S. Senate: U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 109th Congress – 2nd Session". www.senate.gov. from the original on August 29, 2008. Retrieved February 11, 2021.
102. "Alito sworn in as nation's 110th Supreme Court justice". CNN. February 1, 2006. from the original on February 3, 2017. Retrieved October 27, 2017.
103. Bravin, Jess (August 11, 2009). "Change of Venue: In Retirement, Justice O'Connor Still Rules". The Wall Street Journal. from the original on October 28, 2017. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
104. Excerpts from C-SPAN's Interviews with Supreme Court Justices, from the original on January 27, 2022, retrieved January 27, 2022
105. Greenhouse, Linda (December 1, 2023). "Sandra Day O'Connor, First Woman on the Supreme Court, Is Dead at 93". The New York Times. from the original on December 1, 2023. Retrieved December 1, 2023.
106. "O'Connor Decries Republican Attacks on Courts". NPR.org. from the original on September 12, 2017. Retrieved April 4, 2018.
107. O'Connor, Sandra Day. "Judicial Accountability Must Safeguard, Not Threaten, Judicial Independence: An Introduction". Denver University Law Review. Denver, Colorado: Denver University. 86: 1. from the original on August 6, 2020. Retrieved November 8, 2021.
108. . U.S. News & World Report. November 7, 2007. Archived from the original on November 1, 2008.
109. Toobin, Jeffrey (June 11, 2012). "O'Connor and Her Clerk". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. from the original on May 11, 2018. Retrieved May 10, 2018.
110. O'Connor, Sandra Day; Wahid, Abdurrahman (August 7, 2008). . Financial Times. Archived from the original on August 13, 2008.
111. Dupraz, Emily (October 27, 2008). "Affirmative action is still necessary, says O'Connor in HLS keynote address". Harvard Law School. Cambridge, Massachusetts. from the original on August 25, 2022. Retrieved August 25, 2022.
112. Mosk, Matthew (January 26, 2010). "O'Connor Calls Citizens United Ruling A Problem". ABC News. from the original on March 10, 2011. Retrieved December 19, 2010.
113. Farias, Cristian (February 17, 2016). "Sandra Day O'Connor Says Obama Should Get To Replace Justice Scalia". The Huffington Post. from the original on August 7, 2020. Retrieved May 2, 2020.
114. Pryor, William H. Jr. (October 4, 2006). "Neither Force Nor Will, But Merely Judgment". The Wall Street Journal. from the original on November 24, 2017. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
115. . Harvard Law Record. March 15, 2007. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007.
116. Glanton, Dahleen (April 27, 2013). "O'Connor questions court's decision to take Bush v. Gore". Chicago Tribune. from the original on May 4, 2013. Retrieved May 2, 2013.
117. Granite State Ins. Co. v. Am. Bldg. Materials, Inc., No. 12-10979, 11th Circuit, 2013
118. Barnes, Robert (March 10, 2013). "Retired Supreme Court justices still judge – and get judged". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. from the original on May 11, 2018. Retrieved May 10, 2018.
119. Mulcahy, Ned (October 7, 2006). . Jurist. Archived from the original on October 17, 2006. Retrieved November 11, 2006.
120. Brust, Richard (April 2008). "A Cowgirl Rides the Circuits". ABA Journal. from the original on May 11, 2018. Retrieved May 10, 2018.
121. Mears, Bill (June 17, 2013). "Justices strike down citizenship provision in Arizona voter law". CNN. from the original on May 11, 2018. Retrieved May 10, 2018.
122. Lat, David (July 8, 2015). "Supreme Court Clerk Hiring Watch: Who Is NOT Retiring From SCOTUS?". Above the Law. from the original on November 8, 2021. Retrieved May 10, 2018.
123. Lat, David (July 22, 2016). "Supreme Court Clerk Hiring Watch: The Official List". Above the Law. from the original on November 8, 2021. Retrieved May 10, 2018.
124. "National Academy of Public Administration". National Academy of Public Administration. from the original on March 29, 2023. Retrieved April 21, 2023.
125. "The College of William and Mary announcement of O'Connor's appointment to Chancellor post". from the original on January 1, 2006. Retrieved November 18, 2005.
126. Whitson, Brian. "Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates '65 to Serve as W&M Chancellor". College of William & Mary. from the original on September 26, 2011. Retrieved September 6, 2011.
127. . Archived from the original on November 8, 2006. Retrieved November 10, 2006.
128. "Sandra Day O'Connor". cornell.edu. from the original on August 6, 2020. Retrieved March 15, 2020.
129. "O'Connor to Join Foundation Board". The New York Times. April 4, 2006. from the original on November 21, 2020. Retrieved March 15, 2020.
130. Greenhouse, Linda (June 2008). "Independence: why & from what?". Daedalus. 137 (4): 5–7. doi:10.1162/daed.2008.137.4.5. S2CID 57559095 – via Biography in Context.
131. "Sandra Day O'Connor to Teach at UA". uanews.arizona.edu. The Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona. June 23, 2005. from the original on November 8, 2021. Retrieved March 15, 2020.
132. "ASU welcomes O'Connor with renaming of law college". The Tempe Republic. April 6, 2006. p. 10. Retrieved December 1, 2023 – via Newspapers.com. 
133. "Bumpy Start for a Court Cloaked in Grandeur". The New York Times. March 4, 2013. from the original on March 7, 2013. Retrieved March 4, 2013.
134. Whitson, Brian. . Archived from the original on September 8, 2006. Retrieved September 19, 2007.
135. "Office for Religious Life at Stanford University". from the original on July 26, 2008. Retrieved April 23, 2008.
136. "Constitutionally Speaking New Hampshire". Constitutionallyspeakingnh.org. from the original on November 7, 2015. Retrieved November 2, 2015.
137. . Civicmissionofschools.org. Archived from the original on October 24, 2015. Retrieved November 2, 2015.
138. Zehr, Mary Ann (August 25, 2009). "Celebrities Lend Weight to Promote Civics Education". Education Week. from the original on August 28, 2009. Retrieved September 1, 2009.
139. "iCivics (formerly Our Courts) homepage". from the original on October 1, 2010. Retrieved December 19, 2010.
140. Toppo, Greg (April 14, 2015). "Sandra Day O'Connor's post-court legacy: Civics games". USA Today. from the original on September 3, 2019. Retrieved September 3, 2019.
141. . National Constitution Center Web Site. National Constitution Center. July 26, 2010. Archived from the original on June 15, 2010. Retrieved July 27, 2010.
142. . constitutioncenter.org. Archived from the original on October 24, 2015. Retrieved May 16, 2018.
143. . constitutioncenter.org. Archived from the original on November 7, 2015. Retrieved May 16, 2018.
144. "Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor Joins Justice at Stake as Honorary Chair". Justiceatstake.org. April 15, 2013. from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved November 2, 2015.
145. . arizonanonprofits.org. Archived from the original on May 10, 2018. Retrieved May 10, 2018.
146. "A Mission of Civic Duty and Knowledge – The O'Connor Institute". Sandra Day O'Connor Institute. from the original on February 17, 2020. Retrieved February 17, 2020.
147. O'Sullivan, Serena. "Sandra Day O'Connor's house in Tempe added to the National Register of Historic Places". The Arizona Republic. from the original on November 8, 2021. Retrieved July 9, 2020.
148. "O'Connor U launched by Sandra Day O'Connor Institute". Your Valley. May 27, 2020. from the original on June 19, 2020. Retrieved July 9, 2020.
149. "Sandra Day O'Connor, The Junior League of Phoenix". www.ajli.org. from the original on October 24, 2018. Retrieved October 24, 2018.
150. "Sandra Day O'Connor". National Institute for Civil Discourse. January 23, 2012. from the original on September 3, 2019. Retrieved September 3, 2019.
151. "About". National Institute for Civil Discourse. July 5, 2015. from the original on September 3, 2019. Retrieved September 3, 2019.
152. "How Sandra Day O'Connor became the most powerful woman in 1980s America". Washington Post. from the original on March 30, 2016. Retrieved October 6, 2018.
153. "O'Connor Has Breast Surgery To Stop Cancer", The New York Times, Linda Greenhouse. October 22, 1988.
154. "Sister of former Supreme Court Justice O'Connor killed in Arizona car crash". Fox News. May 8, 2016.
155. "Sandra Day O'Connor, the first female Supreme Court justice, dead at 93". NBC News. December 1, 2023. Retrieved December 1, 2023.
156. de Vogue, Ariane (December 2023). "Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, first woman on the Supreme Court, dies". CNN. Retrieved December 1, 2023.
157. Olapido, Gloria; Pengelly, Martin (December 1, 2023). "Sandra Day O'Connor, first woman to serve on US Supreme Court, dies aged 93". The Guardian. from the original on December 1, 2023. Retrieved December 1, 2023.
158. Alafriz, Olivia (December 2, 2023). "'American icon': Biden pays tribute to Sandra Day O'Connor". Politico. Retrieved December 3, 2023.
159. Barnes, Robert. "Justice O'Connor to lie in repose at Supreme Court on Dec. 18". Washington Post. Retrieved December 5, 2023.
160. Jackson, Harold. "Sandra Day O'Connor obituary". The Guardian.
161. Yousif, Nadine. "Ex-Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor dies aged 93". BBC News.
162. Lithwick, Dahlia; Stern, Mark Joseph. "The Sad Ending of Sandra Day O'Connor's Judicial Legacy". Slate.
163. Liptak, Adam. "Justice O'Connor's Judicial Legacy Was Undermined by Court's Rightward Shift". New York Times.

Bibliography

• Greenburg, Jan Crawford (2007). Supreme Conflict: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Control of the United States Supreme Court. Penguin Books.

Further reading

External videos
Presentation by Biskupic on Sandra Day O'Connor, October 23, 2005, C-SPAN
Interview with Thomas on First, April 6, 2019, C-SPAN

• Nomination of Judge Sandra Day O'Connor of Arizona to serve as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (PDF) (Report). U.S. Government Printing Office. September 1981.
• Biskupic, Joan. Sandra Day O'Connor: How the First Woman on the Supreme Court Became Its Most Influential Justice (2005), biography
• Flowers, Prudence. "'A Prolife Disaster': The Reagan Administration and the Nomination of Sandra Day O'Connor". Journal of Contemporary History 53.2 (2018): 391–414. JSTOR 26416694.
• Montini, E. J. (2005). "Rehnquist is No. 1, O'Connor is No. 3, Baloney is No. 2". March 22, 2016, at the Wayback Machine The Arizona Republic. Retrieved March 5, 2013.
• O'Connor, Sandra Day & Day, H. Alan (2002). Lazy B: Growing Up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest. Random House. ISBN 0-375-50724-8., a primary source
• Thomas, Evan. First: Sandra Day O'Connor (2019) Random House, authorized biography

External links

• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Issue positions and quotes at OnTheIssues

Arizona Senate
Preceded by Isabel Burgess	Member of the Arizona Senate from the 8-E district 1969–1971	Succeeded by Constituency abolished
Preceded by Constituency established	Member of the Arizona Senate from the 20th district 1971–1973	Succeeded by Bess Stinson
Preceded by Howard S. Baldwin	Member of the Arizona Senate from the 24th district 1973–1975	Succeeded by John Pritzlaff
Legal offices
Preceded by Potter Stewart	Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States 1981–2006	Succeeded by Samuel Alito
Academic offices
Preceded by Henry Kissinger	Chancellor of the College of William and Mary 2005–2012	Succeeded by Robert Gates