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.
With opportunities for female lawyers very limited at the time, O'Connor struggled to find a job and worked without pay for the county attorney of California's San Mateo region just to get her foot in the door. She soon became deputy county attorney.
Smith was formerly a partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher—the same Los Angeles firm that had, almost three decades earlier, rejected Sandra Day for a law job and asked her how well she could type. On June 29, O’Connor flew to Washington to meet with the president. To maintain secrecy, she was told to wait outside a drugstore on Dupont Circle.
For 24 years, O'Connor was a pioneering force on the Supreme Court. She'll long be remembered for acting as a sturdy guiding hand in the court's decisions during those years and for serving as a swing vote in important cases. O'Connor announced in October 2018 that she's been diagnosed with early stages of dementia that may be Alzheimer’s disease.
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 ...
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.
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.
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.
History.com Editors. 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.
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.
In 2006 O’Connor retired from the Supreme Court and was replaced by Samuel Alito.
Full Article. 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.
…the associate Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who planned to retire in 2006. Alito was the third nominee for the post, after John Roberts (whose nomination had been withdrawn and resubmitted to fill the role of chief justice upon the death in September 2005 of Chief Justice William Rehnquist)…
O'Connor was also the deciding vote on the controversial Bush v. Gore case in 2000. The ruling effectively ended the recount of votes for the contested 2000 presidential race, thereby upholding the original certification of Florida's electoral votes.
ico_print. Sandra Day O'Connor was the first woman appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. A Republican, she was considered a moderate conservative and served for 24 years.
In 1982 , she wrote the majority opinion in Mississippi University for Women v. Hogan, in which the court ruled 5-4 that a state nursing school had to admit men after traditionally having been a women's-only institution. In opposition to the Republican call to reverse the Roe v.
Instead, she took a position as a deputy county attorney in San Mateo, California, initially offering to work for no salary or office, and where she shared space with a secretary. During this time, she also married John O'Connor, who was one class behind her at Stanford. Upon his completion of law school, the couple moved to Germany, where he served as an attorney in the U.S. Army. She then worked as a civilian attorney, specializing in contracts.
O’Connor retired on January 31, 2006. Reflecting the trailblazing nature of her career, only 2 percent of law students were women at the time she attended in the 1950s. By the time she retired in 2006, that percentage had risen to 48 percent.
In a program in which she finished two degrees in just six years instead of seven, she graduated in 1950 with a bachelor's degree in economics and received her law degree in 1952.
Beginnings. Sandra Day O'Connor was born in El Paso, Texas on March 26, 1930. Her parents, Harry “D.A.” and Ada Mae “M.O.” Day, owned a cattle ranch in southeastern Arizona, the Lazy B, the largest and most successful ranch in the region. In the beginning, the remote ranch did not have electricity or running water.
Supreme Court. In July 1981, President Reagan kept his promise and nominated Sandra Day O'Connor. The Senate quickly confirmed her 99-0, with only the absent Senator Max Baucus not able to participate in the historic vote. Thus, Sandra Day O’Connor became the first female justice in the 191-year history of the Supreme Court. At the time she was nominated by President, she became the first person appointed to the nation’s court in 24 years who had state court experience and the first justice in 32 years with lawmaking experience having served in a state legislature.
In 1965, O'Connor returned to full-time employment as one of Arizona's assistant attorneys general, to assist the chief law officer in the state. In 1969, the state senator from her legislative district resigned, leading Governor Jack Williams (1909–1998) to appoint O'Connor to replace the vacant seat.
Upon their return to the United States, the O'Connors settled in the Phoenix, Arizona, area . O'Connor and another lawyer opened a law office in suburban Maryvale; but for the next few years she devoted most of her time to raising her three sons, who were born between 1957 and 1962.
During her time on the bench, she was known for her dispassionate and carefully researched opinions and was regarded as a prominent justice because of her tendency to moderate the sharply divided Supreme Court. READ MORE: How Sandra Day O'Connor's Swing Vote Decided the 2000. O’Connor announced her retirement from the Supreme Court on July 1, 2005.
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.
President Ronald Reagan nominates Sandra Day O’Connor, an Arizona court of appeals judge, to be the first woman Supreme Court justice in U.S. history. On September 21, the Senate unanimously approved her appointment to the nation’s highest court, and on September 25 she was sworn in by Chief Justice Warren Burger.
Bush would choose a replacement likely to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that established a woman’s right to an abortion. She was replaced by Samuel Alito, who became the court’s 110th justice in January 2006.
At the same time, she was perfectly aware of the importance of a dignified image. After her arrival in Washington, “Sandy” O’Connor, as some friends called her, increasingly became Sandra Day O’Connor. The Supreme Court was grand and imperial outside but fusty and antiquated within.
On June 29, O’Connor flew to Washington to meet with the president. To maintain secrecy, she was told to wait outside a drugstore on Dupont Circle. Standing in a pastel suit (bought for the occasion at Saks Fifth Avenue) on a muggy, overcast day, she was picked up by William French Smith’s secretary and driven to the White House. No one recognized her.
At noon on Friday, September 25, Chief Justice Burger took the arm of Sandra Day O’Connor and walked her down the Supreme Court steps as hundreds of photographers, there for the photo session, snapped away.
Behind O’Connor’s mask of self-control was an exuberance, a fulfillment of her father’s bursting pride . Merritt was in O’Connor’s chambers when the justice returned from that first conference. “She came back almost girlishly excited,” Merritt recalled.
O’Connor’s confirmation hearings that September became a huge media event. There were more requests for press credentials than there had been for the Senate Watergate Committee hearings in 1973. A new media institution—cable TV—carried the hearings live, a first for a judicial nomination.
In 1993 , when President Bill Clinton appointed Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the Supreme Court, O’Connor was relieved to have a second female justice, and not just because the court finally installed a women’s bathroom in the robing room behind the bench.
In the court’s weekly conference, the junior justice votes last. O’Connor recalled that she felt “electric” at her first conference, on October 9, 1981. On the very first case, the justices were split four to four and then it came to her.