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Sandra Day O'Connor
Summary
Sandra Day O'Connor (born March 26, 1930) is an American lawyer, former politician, and jurist who served as the first female associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1981 to 2006. She was both the first woman nominated and the first confirmed to the court. A moderate conservative, O'Connor was known for her precisely researched opinions. Nominated by President Ronald Reagan, she was considered a swing vote for the Rehnquist Court and the first five months of the Roberts Court.
Prior to O'Connor's tenure on the Court, she was a judge and an elected official in Arizona, serving as the first female majority leader of a state senate as the Republican leader in the Arizona Senate. Upon her nomination to the Court, O'Connor was confirmed unanimously by the Senate. On July 1, 2005, she announced her intention to retire, effective upon the confirmation of a successor. Samuel Alito was nominated to take her seat in October 2005 and joined the Court on January 31, 2006.
O'Connor most frequently sided with the Court's conservative bloc but demonstrated an ability to side with the Court's liberal members. She often wrote concurring opinions that sought to limit the reach of the majority holding. Her majority opinions in landmark cases include Grutter v. Bollinger and Hamdi v. Rumsfeld. She wrote in part the per curiam majority opinion in Bush v. Gore and was one of three co-authors of the lead opinion in Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
During her time on the Court, some publications ranked O'Connor among the most powerful women in the world. After retiring, she succeeded Henry Kissinger as the Chancellor of the College of William & Mary. On August 12, 2009, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.
Sandra Day was born in El Paso, Texas, the daughter of Harry Alfred Day, a rancher, and Ada Mae (Wilkey). She grew up on a 198,000-acre family cattle ranch near Duncan, Arizona. The ranch was nine miles from the nearest paved road.
Official source
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