Sandra Day O'Connor, first woman on the Supreme Court, dies : NPR
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December 1, 202310:04 AM ET Heard on Morning Edition
Nina Totenberg
Sandra Day O'Connor, first woman on the Supreme Court, dies
Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman to serve on the court, died Friday in Phoenix, Ariz., of complications related to advanced dementia, probably Alzheimer's, and a respiratory illness, the court announced. She was 93 years old.
O'Connor was appointed to the court by President Reagan in 1981 and retired in 2006, after serving more than 24 years on the court.
O'Connor served on the court for a quarter of a century and, after that, became an outspoken critic of what she saw as modern threats to judicial independence.
While on the court, O'Connor was called "the most powerful woman in America." Because of her position at the center of a court that was so closely divided on so many major questions, she often cast the deciding vote in cases involving abortion, affirmative action, national security, campaign finance reform, separation of church and state, and states' rights, as well as in the case that decided the 2000 election, Bush v. Gore — a decision she later hinted she regretted.
Her retirement allowed President George W. Bush to appoint a much more conservative justice, Samuel Alito, in her place, and that appointment took the court in a far more conservative direction.
O'Connor's retirement was the last step in a long balancing act between family and career. In 2005, O'Connor's husband was suffering from Alzheimer's disease, and when the ailing Chief Justice William Rehnquist told her that he was putting off his retirement, O'Connor decided that with her husband's health declining, she could not wait and risk the possibility that the court would have two vacancies at once.
As it turned out, that's what happened anyway. O'Connor announced her retirement, and the chief justice died weeks later. She stayed on for another six months while confirmation hearings proceeded, and in a cruel twist of fate, her husband's health took such a precipitous downward turn that he had to be placed in a home, and later died.
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She set an excellent example in the SCotUS.
she possessed some things sorely lacking in most elected and appointed conservatives today, ethics and honor in performance of their duty.
RIP Justice O'Conner...
To be honest, I thought she died years ago.
She was a trailblazer though , and someone respected by all sides.
We need more like her on SCOTUS.
There is a law school named after her at Arizona State.
Professor Bob Miller, Chair of the NA program at ASU and Chad Smith, former Governor of the Cherokee Nation were/strong advocates for Justice O'Conner A large number of the NARF staff were former students and they also believed in "most" of her judgements/Opinions regarding NA cases.