Former judge Sandra Day O’Connor, who paved the way as the first woman to hold a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court, has died, the court announced on Friday morning (1).
O’Connor, 93, passed away due to “complications related to advanced dementia,” the court said.
O’Connor inspired generations of female lawyers – including the five women who served after her appointment to the high court. They admired her path in a male-dominated field. Over time, she became known as a moderate conservative and often the deciding vote on controversial social issues.
She died after witnessing the conservative-leaning court overturn a ruling on abortion that she helped draft in 1992.
In 2018, O’Connor revealed in a letter that she had been diagnosed with early-stage dementia, likely Alzheimer’s disease.
“Although the final chapter of my life with dementia may be difficult, nothing diminishes my gratitude and deep appreciation for the countless blessings of my life,” she wrote.
When appointing O’Connor to the position in 1981, President Ronald Reagan described her as “a person for all seasons, possessing those unique qualities of temperament, fairness, intellectual capacity, and devotion to the public good that characterized the 101 men who preceded her.”
O’Connor left the court in 2006 to care for her husband, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. President George W. Bush appointed Judge Samuel Alito to fill her seat.
Graduating from Stanford University Law School, she met and briefly dated a classmate, the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist. However, she married another classmate, John O’Connor.
Upon graduation, she was rejected by law firms for being a woman. Eventually, she opened her own firm with her husband. Later, she served as a state senator in Arizona and the first female majority leader. She was a judge on the Maricopa County Superior Court and, in 1979, on the Arizona Court of Appeals.
Important Abortion Vote
During her tenure, the court was informally known as the “O’Connor Court” for her role as the deciding vote in many controversial cases. She perhaps became best known for her vote in the case ‘Planned Parenthood v. Casey,’ a 1992 decision that reaffirmed a woman’s right to abortion. According to the new ruling, a state could not impose an “undue burden” on a woman seeking an abortion. The decision was overturned in 2022 by a conservative court supported by three justices appointed by President Donald Trump.
Although sometimes criticized for not adhering to a rigid and quick jurisprudential doctrine, she was known as a decisive vote and a pragmatist who dealt with issues on a case-by-case basis.
As soon as she retired from the position, her successor, Alito, moved the court to the right on issues like abortion restrictions. It was Alito who drafted the 2022 decision that overturned Roe v. Wade and Casey.
After leaving the high court and before her own diagnosis, O’Connor became a voice on Alzheimer’s disease. She also launched a website dedicated to encouraging young people to learn civic education.
Her husband passed away in 2009, and she leaves behind three children.
O’Connor was well aware of the symbolism of her place in history as the first female justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
“Let me tell you one reason why I consider this important: that the general public sees and respects the fact that, in positions of power and authority, women are well represented,” O’Connor said in a 2003 interview with CNN. “That it is not an exclusively male governance, as it once was.”
Source: CNN