In Memoriam: Sandra Day O'Connor 1930-2023

December 1, 2023

Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor played a pivotal role in deciding some of the most sensitive Court cases on issues such as abortion, affirmative action, religious freedom, voting rights, and freedom of the press. The first woman on the Supreme Court, she was nominated by President Ronald Reagan in 1981, and unanimously confirmed by the Senate. After serving nearly twenty-five years, she retired in 2006.  

Born in El Paso, Texas, in 1930, O’Connor grew up in Arizona on her family’s Lazy B cattle ranch. She earned her law degree (1952) at Stanford University in just two years, graduating third in her class. As a woman, she initially had difficulty finding work as a lawyer, and was offered positions as a legal secretary and as an unpaid deputy county attorney. Beginning in 1954, O’Connor served as a civilian attorney for the U.S. Army in Germany. Upon her return to Arizona in 1957, she opened a private practice.

By the time of her nomination, O’Connor had a proven track record as a successful lawyer, legislator, and judge. She had practiced law in both Arizona and California. O‘Connor also served as Arizona’s assistant attorney general, as a member and majority leader of its state senate, and as an Arizona Supreme Court of Appeals judge.  

While on the nation’s highest court, O’Connor developed a reputation as pragmatic, preferring to make her judgments on a case-by-case basis. She often provided the deciding vote in cases divided between her more liberal and conservative fellow justices. In 1993, then-retired Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. wrote that O’Connor “sits at the ‘center’ of the Supreme Court and is the Court’s most influential member.”

After retiring from the Supreme Court, she founded iCivics to encourage civic engagement and understanding of government among American youth. Her publications include a memoir of growing up on the Lazy B Ranch (co-written with her brother H. Alan) and several children’s books. In 2009, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama, who noted that she had forged “a new path” and had built a “bridge behind her for all young women to follow.”

To read more about Justice O'Connor please see: The Four Justices.

knee length profile portrait of a blond woman in judicial robes
Sandra Day O'Connor by Jean Marcellino / Oil on linen, 2006 / National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Jean Marcellino / © 2008, Jean Marcellino