Sandra Day OConnor

Sandra Day O'Connor 1930-, U.S. lawyer and associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1981-2006), b. El Paso, Tex. Graduating from Stanford law school (1952), she returned to practice in her home state of Arizona. There she was a state assistant attorney general (1965-69) and a Republican state senator (1969-74). Appointed a state judge in 1974, she was in 1979 named to the Arizona Court of Appeals. In 1981, President Reagan nominated her to the U.S. Supreme Court, where she became the first woman justice. Except in cases of sexual discrimination and states' powers under the federal system, she generally resisted judicial activism, emerging in the 1990s as a frequent swing vote between more and less conservative blocs. After leaving the Court, she served (2006) as a member of the Iraq Study Group.

Bibliography: See her Lazy B: Growing Up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest (with her brother, H. A. Day; 2001) and The Majesty of the Law: Reflections of a Supreme Court Justice (2003); study by J. Biskupic (2005).

O'Connor, Sandra Day (1930– ) US Supreme Court justice (1981– ), the first woman appointee. A Republican, she won election to two full terms in the Arizona Senate and was elected majority leader in 1973. She served on the Superior Court in Phoenix (1974–79), until her appointment to the Arizona Court of Appeals.