Retired US Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman appointed to the nation's highest court and a noted pragmatist in an age of deep division, died Friday. She was 93.
O’Connor was nominated by President Ronald Reagan in 1981 and served for 24 years, until her retirement in 2006.
O’Connor was born on March 26, 1930, in El Paso, Texas, and grew up on a cattle ranch in southeast Arizona. She attended Stanford University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and a law degree. She met her future husband, John Jay O’Connor, at Stanford, and they married in 1952. She also had a brief romance with William Rehnquist, who later became the chief justice of the Supreme Court, and who proposed to her but was rejected.
As a Supreme Court justice, O’Connor was often the deciding vote in many landmark cases, such as Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), which upheld the constitutional right to abortion but allowed states to impose some restrictions; Grutter v. Bollinger (2003), which upheld the use of affirmative action in college admissions; and Bush v. Gore (2000), which effectively ended the disputed presidential election in favor of George W. Bush. O’Connor was also a strong advocate for judicial independence and civics education, and founded the iCivics program to teach young people about the American government and democracy.
O'Connor died at her home in Phoenix, Arizona, of complications related to advanced dementia and a respiratory illness, the court said in a statement.
By Salam Bustanji
