Who Was Justice Sandra Day O'Connor? First Woman At US Supreme Court

The first woman to serve on the Supreme Court of the USA, Sandra Day O'Connor, died on December 1 in Phoenix, Arizona, at the age of 93. The Supreme Court announced her death in a statement, saying she died from complications from dementia. Thanks to Justice O'Connor's remarkable presence in American law, the Supreme Court was called the O'Connor Court for much part of her quarter-century tenure. She served at the apex court from 1981 to 2006.

Justice O'Connor pioneered in overseeing judgements on abortion, sex discrimination, religion, affirmative action, and voting rights, among other contentious issues, where she usually held centrist views. She was referred to as the most powerful woman in America. paving the way for other women leaders like Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Ketanji Brown Jackson, and the like. 

Who Was Justice O'Connor?

Before delving into American law, Justice O'Connor grew up in a pasture in Arizona, in a family of agriculturalists. Sandra Day was born on March 26, 1930, in El Paso Texas to Harry Alfred Day and Ada Mae. The farm where she grew up was 198,000 acres large, and nine miles (almost 15 kilometres) from the nearest paved road. The family home did not have running water or electricity until she was seven years old.

Justice O'Connor grew up with two younger siblings, a sister who was eight years younger and a brother who was 10 years younger. For most of her early schooling, she lived in El Paso with her maternal grandmother as the family cattle ranch was too far from any schools. She attended a private school, Radford School for Girls, and visited the ranch for holidays and summer. Justice O'Connor spent her eighth-grade year living at the ranch and riding a bus 32 miles to school. She graduated sixth in her class at Austin High School in El Paso in 1946.

Justice O'Connor attended Stanford University for a BA in economics from the age of 16, where she graduated top 5% to 10% of her batch in 1950. She later attended Stanford Law School for her law degree in 1952. She wrote for the journal, Stanford Law Review. Even here, she graduated in the top 10% of the class.

During her final year at Stanford Law, she began dating John Jay O'Connor III, who was one class year behind her. Six months after her graduation, on December 20, 1952, they tied the knot. They had three sons: Scott (born 1958), Brian (born 1960), and Jay (born 1962).

Stepping Into Law As A Woman

After graduating from Stanford Law School, Justice O'Connor had a hard time as a woman applying to be a law firm attorney. In an interview with NPR in March 2013, she said, "I called at least 40 firms asking for an interview, and not one of them would give me an interview. They said, ‘We don’t hire women." Justice O'Connor had no backing from anyone in law to make it where she did.

In an interview with The New York Times, she said, "I didn't know lawyers and judges. We were cattle ranchers, we didn't know people like that. So I didn't know what I was getting into, and it never entered my mind that there wouldn't be opportunities for women lawyers. It never occured to me. Should have."

She was made to work without pay as a deputy county attorney, sharing an office with a secretary in San Meteo, California. She performed different gigs performing legal research and writing memos, where she was able to accumulate some earnings. She worked with San Mateo County District Attorney Louis Dematteis and deputy district attorney Keith Sorensen.

Illustrious Career

When her husband was drafted into the army, Justice O'Connor went with him to Germany as a civilian attorney for the Army's Quartermaster Corps. When they returned to America three years later, Justice O'Connor took a five-year hiatus from law owing to the birth of Brian. 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.

From 1965 to 1969, Justice O'Connor served as Assistant Attorney General of Arizona. In 1969, the governor of Arizona appointed her to fill a vacancy in the Arizona Senate, when she ran for the election and won the seat the following year. By 1973, she became the first woman to serve as Arizona's or any state's Majority Leader.  She served at the Arizona State Court of Appeals until 1981 when she was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Ronald Reagan.

Raegan had promised in his political campaigns to appoint a female leader to the Supreme Court. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was appointed when she was 51 years old and she served for 24 years. She held a centrist view on some of the important cases. In 1992, O’Connor cast the decisive vote to uphold the court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that had made abortion legal nationwide, despite having a 'pro-life' leaning stance earlier.

In 1986 she voted to uphold a Georgia law prohibiting sexual relations between homosexuals but voted in 2003 to strike down a similar law in Texas. That same year (2003), she gave a crucial vote to uphold campus affirmative action favouring racial minorities in admissions.

O'Connor was with the majority when the court ruled to stop the Florida presidential vote recount, ensuring that the Republican George W. Bush candidate won the presidency in 2000. She later told the Chicago Tribune in 2013 that the court did not need to get involved, expressing regret.

Known for taking a moderate approach in her judgements, the court's republican leaning during her final few years at the Supreme Court did not resonate with her ideologies. She then retired in January 2006 to care for her ailing husband. 

Health Complications

Justice O'Connor underwent a mastectomy in October 1988 for advanced-stage breast cancer. In an interview she said the disease “fostered a desire in me to make every day a good day," NBC News reported.

In 2018, she wrote a letter stating that she had been diagnosed with dementia some time ago, and a possibility of Alzheimer's disease. She was 88 years old at the time. “As this condition has progressed, I am no longer able to participate in public life... Since many people have asked about my current status and activities, I want to be open about these changes, and while I am still able, share some personal thoughts," she said.

Reports stated that Justice Sandra Day O'Connor passed from complications due to advanced dementia. She will be remembered for her determination to not only step into a male-dominated profession but also for making a memorable imprint in American law, She will be credited with paving the way for future leaders, especially women, of the USA.