Sandra Day O'Connor

Associate Justice ,United States Supreme Court

Born: March 26, 1930

   Society as a whole benefits immeasurably from a climate in which all persons, regardless of race or gender, may have the opportunity to earn respect, responsibility, advancement and remuneration based on ability.

                                                                                                                                                   —Sandra Day O'Connor

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

   Sandra Day (O'Connor) was born on March 26, 1930 in El Paso, Texas. She spent her early childhood on the Day family's 198,000 acre cattle ranch. When she reached school age her parents sent her back to El Paso to live with her grandmother.

   Sandra Day attended Stanford University, where she received her B.A. in economics in 1950. She continued at Stanford for her law degree, graduating in two years rather than the customary three, and graduating third out of a class of 102. It was during her work as editor on the Stanford Law Review that she met John Jay O'Connor III, also attending law school at Stanford. Soon after graduation they were married. The O'Connors settled in Phoenix, Arizona.

   O'Connor served as an Arizona assistant attorney general from 1965 to 1969, when she was appointed to a vacancy in the Arizona Senate. In 1974, she ran successfully for trial judge, a position she held until she was appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals in 1979. Eighteen months later, on July 7, 1981 President Ronald Reagan nominated her to the Supreme Court. In September 1981, Sandra Day O'Connor became the Court's 102nd justice and its first female member.

    During her time on the court Justice O'Connor was regarded as a consummate compromiser. She also made it clear that the high court's role in American society was to interpret the law, not to legislate. Her votes were generally conservative, but she frequently surprised observers with her political independence. A quietly determined woman who has blazed new trails for her sex, Sandra Day O'Connor has become a role model for Americans of both sexes and all ages. On July 1, 2005 Associate Justice O'Connor announced her retirement from the Supreme Court after 24 years of service on the bench.

   O'Connor currently serves as Chancellor of the College of William and Mary, on the board of trustees of the Rockefeller Foundation, the executive board of the Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative, and the American Bar Association Museum of Law board of directors. Between March and December of 2006, Justice O'Connor served her country as a member of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group of the United States Institute of Peace.