Sandra Day O’Connor was the first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. Nominated by President Ronald Reagan in 1981, she was confirmed by the Senate in a 99–0 vote—a level of unanimity that seems impossible in the current political climate. (By comparison, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson was confirmed in a 53–47 vote, and Judge Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed 52–48.)
October 23, 2024 Feature
Sandra Day O’Connor: A Legacy of Firsts
Terri Williams
O’Connor had a significant impact on the Supreme Court, often casting the deciding vote on issues that improved the lot of women and helped ensure the tenets of democracy. As a Republican who previously served in the Arizona State Senate, she was expected to vote with the conservatives on the Supreme Court—and she typically did.
However, sometimes O’Connor’s actions aligned with the Court’s more liberal judges, as she sided with them on certain landmark issues. In 2009, three years after she retired, President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
These are some of the areas in which O’Connor helped lead innovations:
Bias Against Women
Although O’Connor was the first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, her path was anything but easy. After she graduated from Stanford Law School, she applied to law firms in Los Angeles and San Francisco and only received an offer to work as a legal secretary. Because that did not align with her goals, she ended up getting a job in San Mateo, California, as deputy county attorney, but only after offering to work for free and sharing space with her secretary.
In 1965, after having three sons and moving with her husband to Arizona, O’Connor resumed work full time and became an assistant state attorney general. In 1969, she was appointed to fill a vacant seat in the Arizona State Senate. In 1972, she became the first woman in the nation to hold the post of majority leader in a state legislature.
In 1974, O’Connor left the state senate and was elected to the Maricopa County Superior Court, and in 1979, she was appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals. During O’Connor’s time in Arizona, she helped found the Arizona Women Lawyers Association and the National Association of Women Judges, designed to help women lawyers and judges succeed by fostering connections and providing information and support.
On the Supreme Court, she served as a shining example of women breaking the glass ceiling. Beth McCormack, the first female dean of Vermont Law School, says she was seven years old when Sandra Day O’Connor was appointed as the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court. “I did not understand then the significance of that moment but recall that her appointment, as well as Sally Ride’s historic flight, were often the topic of dinner table conversations between my parents and their daughters, and it felt normal.”
McCormack says that at the age of 12, she began to understand the significance and then was shocked that O’Connor was the only woman on the Supreme Court. “It had not occurred to me before then that some jobs were less likely to come my way because of my gender.”
As she decided to also pursue a career in law, McCormack says, “I could not believe that as a law student, Sandra Day O’Connor graduated in the top 10 percent of her class at Stanford Law School and had trouble finding a paying job.” It became easier to understand when McCormack became the first woman dean of Vermont Law School in its 50-year history.
Looking back on Justice O’Connor’s influence on her life and career, McCormack says she comes back to this quotation from her in 1990: “As women achieve power, the barriers will fall. As society sees what women can do, as women see what women can do, there will be more women out there doing things, and we’ll all be better off for it.”
Reproductive Rights
After joining a 5–4 majority and cowriting the principal opinion in the 1992 decision Planned Parenthood v. Casey, O’Connor upheld the basics of Roe v. Wade while adding that viability restrictions shouldn’t place an undue burden on access to abortion.
Alina S. Vulic, a trial lawyer at Carpenter & Zuckerman, says that increasingly, in this day and age where women’s rights are being attacked, chipped away, and eroded in the legal and political arenas, she finds herself leaning more and more into the solace of inspiration of the life and career of O’Connor.
“In a world where Roe v. Wade has been attacked, where women’s rights to their own bodies, their choices, and their freedoms are stripped away, not so silently,” Vulic notes, “I am in awe of the way that Justice O’Connor maintained her position as a voice of reason in a country that had been polarized by extremes—then, as it, unfortunately, is now.”
Native American Rights
In Brendale v. Confederated Yakima Indian Nation (1989), O’Connor joined other justices in holding that the Yakama Nation had the authority to regulate land owned by nonmembers in a “closed” part of the reservation. In Oklahoma Tax Commission v. Sac & Fox Nation (1993), she wrote that Oklahoma could not impose taxes on tribal members who lived and worked in Indian Country. In 2001, in Nevada v. Hicks, O’Connor filed a concurrence criticizing the majority opinions for ruling to limit tribal jurisdiction over Nevada state game officials.
Whether it was because of her own experience growing up in the West, where migration of new populations from the East confronting native populations was still playing out as she grew up; because of her own experiences with discrimination; because of some fundamental sense of equality and fairness; or for some other reason, Justice O’Connor seemed protective of Native American rights more than the other conservatives on the Court at the time.
Fair and Democratic Processes
In 2003, O’Connor wrote the opinion in Grutter v. Bollinger, which upheld the use of affirmative action in the admissions process at the University of Michigan Law School.
Meredith R. Miller, a professor of law at Touro Law Center, points to another case, Harris v. Forklift Systems Inc. (1993), in which Justice Sandra Day O’Connor advanced workplace equality by clarifying the definition of a “hostile work environment” under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. “The plaintiff, Teresa Harris, suffered numerous sexist insults and innuendo at her job—the types of comments that are patently unacceptable in today’s work environment—so she sued her employer,” Miller explains.
“Justice O’Connor, writing for a unanimous Court (somewhat unimaginable today),” Miller adds, “rejected the prevailing standard that required a plaintiff to show that their ‘psychological well-being’ was ‘seriously affected’ to make out a hostile work environment claim.”
Instead, O’Connor wrote that “Title VII comes into play before the harassing conduct leads to a nervous breakdown.”
Miller says, “She recognized then what is conventional wisdom today: Discrimination has other potential, collateral effects and ‘can and often will detract from employees’ job performance, discourage employees from remaining on the job, or keep them from advancing in their careers.’”
Civics Education
After she retired, O’Connor became a special adviser to the American Bar Association Commission on Civic Education. As a judge, she said she observed that people didn’t understand how government works—and she also was alarmed that the judiciary was often politicized and threatened with punishment for how they voted.
With an eye toward changing the future, O’Connor founded iCivics, which includes free lesson plans, games, and discussion groups to help students become more informed and engaged in civic life.
What’s more, Camp O’Connor USA is a free summer program for middle school students. The weeklong, merit-based camp is designed to increase students’ understanding of democracy, the three branches of government, and the responsibilities of citizens while developing leadership skills.
Similarly, the O’Connor Institute Ambassadors Civics & Debate Club is an online program for 9th graders through 12th graders. The free program lets students interact with government leaders at every level and debate with other students from across the country.
Mentoring Other Women Judges
O’Connor also thought it was important to mentor other women, and her legacy continues today. Angela Banks is the vice dean and Charles J. Merriam Distinguished Professor of Law at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University (ASU) in Phoenix. “I wanted to be a lawyer since I was a young child—growing up and seeing Justice O’Connor, a woman at the highest level of the legal profession, allowed me to believe that I could have success in this profession,” she says.
“ASU Law was the first law school to be named for a contemporary woman, and it is now only one of two law schools named for a woman,” Banks points out. “In 2006, when ASU Law was named the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, ASU President Michael Crow stated that the honor was to infuse the school with Justice O’Connor’s integrity, public service, and personal independence.”
Justice O’Connor leaves a legacy of public service, as she served in the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government, and the law school is continuing this legacy by preparing students for careers in public service. For example, Banks notes that students can participate in clinics that expose them to public interest work, such as the Immigration Clinic, the Indian Legal Clinic, the Public Defender Clinic, and the Prosecution Clinic.
She adds that there are opportunities for students to secure public interest internships and externships and receive academic fellowships and postgraduate fellowships.
“Another way that we honor Justice O’Connor’s legacy is through the annual O’Connor Justice Prize, which was established in 2014 to recognize people who have made extraordinary contributions to advancing the rule of law, justice, and human rights,” Banks concludes.
A Whole Generation of Women Inspired
In speaking with a cross-section of attorneys around the United States, it becomes clear that many women in the law today were inspired by Justice O’Connor early on in their lives.
Alina S. Vulic, a trial lawyer at Carpenter & Zuckerman, shares, “I appreciate that O’Connor was not led by a social or political agenda but carefully created her own opinions by evaluating the actual merits of the cases before her—a style the current Supreme Court could certainly use now.”
Vulic adds that she’s grateful that Justice O’Connor paved the way for women like her, a female, first-generation American lawyer, to walk into primarily male-dominated courtrooms with her head held high and her words spoken proudly.
Hoda Elamir, a lawyer at Harvey Law Group, shares, “As a woman who overcame numerous barriers and shattered glass ceilings in a male-dominated field, she [O’Connor] serves as a beacon of hope and empowerment for female attorneys seeking to make their mark in the legal world.”
“Her advocacy for minority rights—as well as gender equality—resonates deeply with the experiences of women of color in law, who often face intersectional challenges and systemic biases.”
Leslie H. Tayne, founder and managing director of Tayne Law Group, P.C., in New York City, says she’s inspired by O’Connor’s commitment to creating a fair and equitable work environment. Right after law school, she got a job as part of a defense team for parole revokees. It was a tough job, and the frustration of dealing with a system that seemed unfair to her clients—along with the stress of being a new mom working full time—led her to shift gears and get an in-house counsel job at a debt resolution start-up.
“Leadership hadn’t ever crossed my mind at the time, but watching Justice O’Connor handle the Supreme Court, surrounded by men, with her sharp mind and unshakable pragmatism planted a seed in me.”
Tayne decided to carve out a space and make an impact on people who were in need and suffering financially. She recalls going to events with hundreds of men and only one or two women in attendance, but she pushed through to cultivate respect for herself and build her business and reputation in the male-dominated world of law and debt collection.
Justice O’Connor’s impact on the legal profession can be seen in so many ways, particularly in the admiration of so many women who followed her into the law.