Sunday, July 19, 2009

Sandra Day O'Connor, Attorney, Public official, and Supreme Court Justice, 1930



Sandra was born in 1930,in El Paso, Texas. She graduated from Stanford University in 1950 and Stanford Law School in 1952, marrying a classmate, John Jay O'Connor III, upon graduation. After pursuing private law practice in Arizona, she became an assistant attorney general for the state (1965-69) and then a Republican member of the Arizona Senate (1969-74), in which role she became the first woman in the United States to hold the position of majority leader. Her election as a Superior Court judge in Maricopa County (1974-79) was followed by her appointment to the Arizona Court of Appeals in Phoenix (1979-81). In July 1981, President Ronald Reagan chose her as his first appointee to the U.S. Supreme Court, and, after her confirmation by the Senate, she was sworn in on September 25, 1981, becoming the first woman U.S. Supreme Court justice. O'Connor was a moderate conservative who sometimes sided with the Court's liberal minority on social issues. She became known for her meticulously researched opinions on the bench.

Article by Alexander S

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