“As a cowgirl from the Arizona desert, I never imagined that I would one day become the first female justice on the Supreme Court of the United States,” the woman, who grew up on a vast and remote ranch, wrote in 2018, saying she was “deeply grateful.” ”for their journey, despite the first attacks of illness. American Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States, died on Friday, December 1st at the age of 93.
She was chosen in 1981 by Republican President Ronald Reagan, his first Supreme Court appointment, and retired in 2006, particularly to help her husband, John O’Connor, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and disappeared in 2009. After her, five more women justices were appointed to the Supreme Court, four of whom are currently serving, a record for that institution.
Sandra Day O’Connor herself announced in 2018 that she was leaving public life to fight “dementia, probably Alzheimer’s.” She died on Friday morning in Phoenix, the capital of the state of Arizona (southwest), the court reported in a press release, specifying that she died “from complications related to advanced dementia, probably Alzheimer’s, and respiratory diseases.”
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“Sandra Day O’Connor, a daughter of the American Southwest, has blazed a historic trail as the first female justice on our nation’s Supreme Court,” wrote the court’s president, John Roberts, praising “her unwavering determination, her undeniable competence and his competence .” disarming openness. “On the Supreme Court, we mourn the loss of a beloved colleague, a fiercely independent champion of the rule of law and an eloquent civil rights leader,” he added.
Centrist and pragmatic
During her quarter-century on the Supreme Court, her centrist and pragmatic stance often influenced the majority of the nine justices in landmark decisions. “This is undoubtedly Sandra Day O’Connor’s court today,” said law professor Erwin Chemerinsky, currently dean of Berkeley Law School in California, in 2001.
“In practically all areas of constitutional law, the fifth deciding vote decides the majority and minority positions. Lawyers who plead in court and present their arguments in writing know that in practice they often only address one person,” he said.
Thus, in 1989 and 1992, Sandra Day O’Connor preserved the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision, which was ultimately overturned by the current court in June 2022, recognizing a federal right to abortion by refusing to side with the voice of the most conservative justices to unite . On the other hand, it joined with the court’s conservative majority to block the recount of votes in Florida in the 2000 presidential election, allowing Republican candidate George W. Bush to win against his Democratic opponent Al Gory.
This graduate of the prestigious Stanford Law School in California was also known for her commitment to states’ rights over federal power. It was a Democratic president, Barack Obama, who presented him with America’s highest civilian honor, the Medal of Freedom, in 2009.
“Sandra Day O’Connor was like the pilgrim in the poem she sometimes quoted – she walked a new path and built a bridge behind her for all young women to follow,” Barack Obama said in a statement following the announcement of her death .
“She always tried to find consensus,” said Senate Dean Chuck Grassley, a Republican. “He was the first judge I was allowed to vote for as a senator,” he said. The Senate confirmed his nomination with 99 votes in favor and no votes against.
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