Sandra Day O'Connor

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Lore & Background

Sandra Day was born on March 26, 1930, in El Paso, Texas, and grew up on a 198,000-acre family cattle ranch near Duncan, Arizona. Her home lacked running water or electricity until she was seven. As a cowgirl she owned a .22-caliber rifle and would shoot coyotes and jackrabbits. She graduated sixth in her class at Austin High School in El Paso in 1946. Accepted into Stanford University at age 16, she earned a B.A. in economics in 1950, graduating magna cum laude. Inspired by Professor Harry Rathbun, she pursued a law degree at Stanford Law School, graduating near the top of her class in 1952. While attending, she served on the Stanford Law Review whose then presiding editor-in-chief was future Supreme Court chief justice William Rehnquist. Day achieved the Order of the Coif, indicating she was in the top 10 percent of her class. After law school, she had difficulty finding a paying job as an attorney because of her gender. She 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. She later served as assistant Attorney General of Arizona from 1965 to 1969. In 1969, the governor of Arizona appointed O'Connor to fill a vacancy in the Arizona Senate. By 1973, she became the first woman to serve as Arizona's or any state's majority leader. After serving two full terms, she left the Senate. In 1974, O'Connor was appointed to the Maricopa County Superior Court, serving from 1975 to 1979 when she was elevated to the Arizona 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.

Reader's Guide

Sandra Day O'Connor's significance lies in her role as the first woman on the U.S. Supreme Court, a milestone that reshaped public perception of the judiciary. As a moderate conservative swing vote, she held decisive influence in many landmark cases. Her majority opinions in landmark cases include Grutter v. Bollinger and Hamdi v. Rumsfeld. In 2000, she wrote in part the per curiam majority opinion in Bush v. Gore and in 1992 was one of three co-authors of the lead opinion in Planned Parenthood v. Casey that preserved legal access to abortion in the United States. Her jurisprudence often sought narrow rulings, as seen in her concurring opinions that limited majority holdings. On July 1, 2005, O'Connor announced her retirement, effective upon the confirmation of a successor. Samuel Alito was nominated to take her seat in October 2005, and joined the Supreme Court on January 31, 2006. At the time of her death, O'Connor was the last living member of the Burger Court. 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.

Did You Know?

• O'Connor was confirmed by the U.S. Senate with a vote of 99–0; only Senator Max Baucus of Montana was absent, and he sent her a copy of A River Runs Through It by way of apology.
• In her first year on the Court, she received over 60,000 letters from the public, more than any other justice in history.
• As a child, she lived on a 198,000-acre family cattle ranch that lacked running water or electricity until she was seven years old.
• She served on the Stanford Law Review alongside future chief justice William Rehnquist, who was then the presiding editor-in-chief.
• After retiring, she succeeded Henry Kissinger as the chancellor of the College of William & Mary.