Sandra model rare sets2/5/2024 ![]() During her decades on the court, there was “a significant shift in how the court views federal-state relations,” Dinh says, “and that was largely led intellectually by Justice O’Connor.” Judicial views Over the course of her career, she engaged with numerous federalism cases, and her past as a state legislator became apparent in her decisions, which consistently tipped the scales of power from the federal government back to the states. While she wasn’t a philosophical justice, certain lines of jurisprudence did appear in O’Connor’s thinking. “Our obligation is to define the liberty of all, not to mandate our own moral code.” “Some of us as individuals find abortion offensive to our most basic principles or morality, but that cannot control our decision,” O’Connor said. She delivered the plurality opinion - authored by her, Justice Kennedy and Justice David Souter - from the bench with her typical subdued style. Casey, modifying Roe’s framework but affirming a woman’s constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy. While she didn’t prove to be a firebrand for either side - she upheld some abortion restrictions early in her tenure - O’Connor delivered a major win for the pro-choice flank in 1992’s Planned Parenthood v. Wade decision, which was settled nearly a decade before O’Connor’s arrival on the bench. ![]() It is perhaps fitting that one of the most consequential decisions she made during her quarter-century on the court was on abortion.Ībortion-rights activists and objectors alike pinned their hopes on the first female justice in the years after the landmark Roe v. ![]() They are survived by their three sons.)Īccordingly, O’Connor “was particularly careful in cases involving women and children,” says her former clerk McBride. Indeed, it was a decision to prioritize her family that eventually led to her surprise retirement in 2006 to spend more time with her husband, John, who was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease-the same disease that likely contributed to her death 14 years later. “I come to you tonight wearing my bra and my wedding ring,” she used to tell audiences in Arizona, according to Joan Biskupic’s biography of the Justice. Historical/Corbis/Getty Images Her own brand of feminismįor a pioneering woman, O’Connor practiced a self-possessed form of feminism, never sacrificing her role as a wife and mother during her groundbreaking career. At center, holding two family Bibles, is her husband, John O'Connor. "She is truly a person for all seasons,” Reagan said at the time, “possessing those unique qualities of temperament, fairness, intellectual capacity and devotion to the public good which have characterized the 101 brethren who have preceded her.” Sandra Day O'Connor is sworn in a Supreme Court Justice by Chief Justice Warren Burger. In 1981, he made good on that pledge, nominating O’Connor to replace Justice Potter Stewart. It was there that she caught the attention of President Ronald Regan, who had promised during his campaign to appoint the first woman to the Supreme Court. After nearly three terms, she left political life and became a judge, ultimately rising to the Arizona State Court of Appeals. O’Connor went on to be assistant Attorney General of Arizona and then an Arizona state senator - eventually becoming the first woman to be a state Senate Majority Leader. “She faced challenges and just refused to let circumstances dictate what her life would become,” says attorney Allyson Ho, who clerked for her in 2002. And yet she plugged ahead, unwavering in her self-confidence and drive.
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