From News Nation:
“Sandra Day O’Connor, first
woman on the Supreme Court, dies at 93”
Sandra Day O’Connor, a legal and
legislative trailblazer who was the first woman appointed to the United States
Supreme Court, has died. She was 93. Nominated by former President Ronald
Reagan in 1981, O’Connor served on the bench until 2006, casting votes in
landmark cases including Gore v. Bush and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Abortion
rights opponents had sought to defeat O’Connor’s nomination, fearful that she
would tolerate abortion and not vote to overturn Roe v. Wade. They were
partially right. O’Connor did not vote to strike down any restrictions on
abortion until Hodgson v. Minnesota in 1990, and in 1992 co-authored the lead
opinion in Casey, which upheld, though limited, the right to have an abortion. A
moderate conservative, O’Connor was considered a swing vote for the Rehnquist
Court and the first five months of the Roberts court. She was known for her
pragmatism and methodical, thoroughly researched opinions.
She was awarded the Presidential
Medal of Freedom in 2009. In 2018 O’Connor announced she had been diagnosed
with early-state dementia and would withdraw from public life.
Sandra Day O’Connor was born
March 26, 1930, in El Paso, Texas, to Harry Alfred and Ada Mae Day. The family
lived on a cattle ranch in southeastern Arizona, where O’Connor grew
resourceful and learned to brand cattle. At the age of 4, O’Connor moved to El
Paso to live with her grandmother to attend school, first at the Radford School
for Girls and then Austin High School. In the summers, O’Connor returned home
to spend time at the family ranch. She received her bachelor’s degree in 1950
and her law degree in 1952, both from Stanford University. Her first job out of
college was as deputy county attorney in San Mateo, California, working for no
salary.
She spent a brief period in
Germany after marrying John O’Connor, who served as an attorney in the U.S.
Army. The couple had three children between 1957 and 1962 after returning to
Arizona. She became assistant attorney general in Arizona in 1965, and four
years later was appointed to the Arizona State Senate. Three years later, after
winning election in 1970 and 1972, she was chosen as the Arizona Senate’s
Republican majority leader, the first woman in the country to hold the
position. She left the state legislature in 1974 to enter the judicial branch
and was elected Maricopa County Superior Court judge, a position she held for
five years before being appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals.
Two years later, she ascended to
her post on the highest court in the country.
^ This is sad. ^
https://www.newsnationnow.com/politics/supreme-court/sandra-day-oconnor-dies/
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