![]() ![]() O'Connor has been active on the lecture circuit as well, speaking to different groups around the country while continuing to weigh in on legal issues. You have to teach it to every generation." She has also served on the federal appeals court and authored several books: the judicial memoir The Majesty of the Law: Reflections of a Supreme Court Justice (2003), the children's titles Chico (2005) and Finding Susie (2009) and Out of Order: Stories From the History of the Supreme Court (2013). ![]() As she explained to Parade magazine, "We have a complex system of government. In 2006, she launched iCivics, an online civics education venture aimed at middle school students. O'Connor didn't slow down in her retirement. Bush thus went on to serve his first term as president, with O'Connor later admitting that perhaps the highest court should not have weighed in based on the circumstances of the election. The ruling effectively ended the recount of votes for the contested 2000 presidential race, thereby upholding the original certification of Florida's electoral votes. O'Connor was also the deciding vote on the controversial Bush v. Monroe County Board of Education that ruled the school board in question was indeed responsible for protecting a fifth-grade student from unwanted advances from another student. In 1999, O'Connor sided with the majority opinion in the sexual harassment case Davis v. In a majority opinion coauthored with Anthony Kennedy and David Souter, O'Connor broke away from the dissents penned by William Rehnquist and Antonin Scalia. Casey (1992) to uphold the court's earlier decision. Wade decision on abortion rights, O'Connor provided the vote needed in Planned Parenthood v. In opposition to the Republican call to reverse the Roe 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 1982, she wrote the majority opinion in Mississippi University for Women v. O'Connor often focused on the letter of law and voted for what she believed best fit the intentions of the U.S. Accomplishments as a Supreme Court JusticeĪs a member of the country's highest court, O'Connor was considered to be a moderate conservative, who tended to vote in line with the Republican platform, although at times broke from its ideology. Senate and broke new ground for women when she was sworn in as the first female justice on the Supreme Court. O'Connor received unanimous approval from the U.S. Only two years later, President Ronald Reagan nominated her for associate justice of the U.S. In 1979, O'Connor was selected to serve on the state's court of appeals. Outside of the courtroom, she remained involved in Republican politics. ![]() JudgeĪs a judge, O'Connor developed a solid reputation for being firm but just. In 1974 she took on a different challenge and ran for the position of judge in the Maricopa County Superior Court, winning the race. A conservative Republican, O'Connor won reelection twice. ![]() In 1969, O'Connor received a state senate appointment by Governor Jack Williams to fill a vacancy. There she worked at a private practice before returning to public service, acting as the state's assistant attorney general from 1965-69.Political Party She returned home in 1958 and settled in Arizona. She soon became deputy county attorney.įrom 1954-57, O'Connor moved overseas and served as a civilian lawyer for the Quartermaster Masker Center in Frankfurt, Germany. 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 later wrote about her rough and tumble childhood in her memoir, Lazy B: Growing Up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest, published in 2002.Īfter graduating from Stanford University in 1950 with a bachelor’s degree in economics, O’Connor attended the university’s law school and received her degree in 1952, graduating third in her class. O'Connor was adept at riding and assisted with ranch duties. Early Life, Education & Careerīorn on March 26, 1930, in El Paso, Texas, O'Connor spent part of her youth on her family's Arizona ranch. She retired in 2006 after serving for 24 years. O'Connor was a key swing vote in many important cases, including the upholding of Roe v. She received unanimous Senate approval and made history as the first woman justice to serve on the nation's highest court. In 1981, Ronald Reagan nominated her to the U.S. Sandra Day O'Connor was elected to two terms in the Arizona state senate. ![]()
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