Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman on the Supreme Court and the deciding vote in some of the most hot-button issues facing the country, is expected to be honored at Washington National Cathedral on Tuesday. President Biden and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. are among those who will give eulogies at the funeral […]
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Justice O’Connor, the First Woman on the Supreme Court, Lies in Repose
Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman on the Supreme Court, lay in repose on Monday in the court building where she served for decades, often as the ideological center, making her one of the most powerful women in America. The Supreme Court justices, former law clerks and the public gathered on a blustery morning […]
Read MoreThe Supreme Court Once Reflected Social Consensus. No More.
So it should hardly be surprising that public trust in the court has fallen precipitously. According to Gallup, the court’s public approval, which had been running between 60 and 70 percent, dropped to a record-low 40 percent in September 2021. Gallup associated the drop with the justices’ refusal to block Texas’ flagrantly unconstitutional Senate Bill […]
Read MoreSandra Day O’Connor’s Barrier-Breaking Marriage
In the wake of Sandra Day O’Connor’s passing, I saw a photo of her with my father, Ronald Reagan, after he had nominated her to be the first woman on the Supreme Court. They were outside on the grounds of the White House, walking side by side, smiling, obviously in the midst of a conversation. […]
Read MoreI Clerked for Justice O’Connor. She Was My Hero, but I Worry About Her Legacy.
When I learned that Justice Sandra Day O’Connor had died, I felt not just the loss of a world historical figure but also the loss of someone who formed a part of my identity. As a young woman, I was in awe of Justice O’Connor. Her presence on the Supreme Court offered an answer to […]
Read MoreO’Connor’s Most Vital Work Was After She Stepped Down
You can tell a lot about a person by what he or she regrets. This holds especially for Supreme Court justices, whose decisions can, with a single vote, upend individual lives and alter the course of history. Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. said he probably made a mistake in upholding a law criminalizing gay sex; […]
Read MoreIn and Out of the Courtroom, O’Connor Inspired a Generation of Women
When Laney Serface was a young girl growing up in Northern California, she pinned a news article about Sandra Day O’Connor among the ephemera of theater tickets and photographs on her bulletin board. “She sat in one of the highest positions in our government, and that made me feel like I could, too,” said Ms. […]
Read MoreSandra O’Connor’s Extraordinary Final Chapter
Sandra Day O’Connor gave up lifetime tenure on the Supreme Court — a job she loved and one with extraordinary power — to care for her husband of 52 years as he deteriorated from dementia. That decision, in 2005, began a poignant final chapter of her extraordinary life. Her choice, at age 75, reflected her […]
Read MoreSandra Day O’Connor Never Stopped Being a Politician
In her opinion for a bare five-justice majority, she relied heavily on a pair of amicus briefs. One was by a group of major corporations, led by General Motors, that argued, in Justice O’Connor’s words, “the skills needed in today’s increasingly global marketplace can only be developed through exposure to widely diverse people, cultures, ideas, […]
Read More5 Books About Sandra Day O’Connor
Before there were the justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett, there was Sandra Day O’Connor. Justice O’Connor, who died on Friday at 93, broke the judiciary’s glass ceiling when she became the first woman on the United States Supreme Court. Appointed by President Ronald Reagan in […]
Read MoreSandra Day O’Connor’s Legacy Was Undermined by Court’s Rightward Shift
WASHINGTON — Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who died Friday at 93, was the sort of figure once familiar in American political and judicial life: a moderate Republican ready to look for compromise and common ground. That led her to vote to uphold abortion rights, affirmative action and campaign finance regulations. Since she retired in 2006, […]
Read MoreSandra Day O’Connor Is Celebrated as a ‘Trailblazer’
One adjective was invoked more than any other to describe Sandra Day O’Connor immediately after her death at 93 on Friday: “trailblazing.” Justice O’Connor, the first woman on the United States Supreme Court, paved the way for generations of women in politics and law. Raised on a remote Arizona ranch, Justice O’Connor was remembered as […]
Read MoreWhat Sandra Day O’Connor Stood For on the Supreme Court
This was published in 2021 to mark the 40th anniversary of Sandra Day O’Connor taking a seat on the Supreme Court. She died on Friday, Dec. 1, 2023. This has been a month of sad remembrances — the 20th anniversary of Sept. 11, of course, and the anniversary last Saturday of the death of Justice […]
Read MoreSandra Day O’Connor, First Woman on the Supreme Court, Is Dead at 93
Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman on the United States Supreme Court, a rancher’s daughter who wielded great power over American law from her seat at the center of the court’s ideological spectrum, died on Friday in Phoenix. She was 93. The Supreme Court announced her death in a statement, saying the cause was complications […]
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