Sandra Day O’Connor

@Former Associate Justice of the Us Supreme Court, Timeline and Childhood

Sandra Day O'Connor is a retired associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States of America

Mar 26, 1930

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Biography

Personal Details

  • Birthday: March 26, 1930
  • Nationality: American
  • Famous: Former Associate Justice of the Us Supreme Court, Stanford University, Lawyers & Judges
  • City/State: Texas
  • Siblings: Ann Day
  • Universities:
    • Stanford University
    • Stanford University (BA
    • LLB) Stanford Law School
  • Notable Alumnis:
    • Stanford University

Sandra Day O’Connor born at

El Paso, Texas, United States

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Birth Place

She married John Jay O’Connor III on 20th December, 1952. Ever since their marriage, her husband was the driving force in their life. Together, the couple were blessed with three sons - the eldest Scott followed by Brian and Jay.

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Personal Life

In 1988, she was diagnosed with breast cancer; she underwent mastectomy and revealed about her treatment only in 1994. Many thought that she would resign from the court, but she battled cancer and continued to hold her seat.

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Personal Life

In 1989, her husband began suffering from Alzheimer’s. It was difficult for her to watch her husband lose his memory. He lived for twenty years with the progressive mental deterioration and breathed his last in 2009.

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Personal Life

Sandra was born on 26th March, 1930 at El Paso, Texas to ranchers Harry and Ada Mae. She lived with her grandmother and attended ‘Radford School for Girls’.

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Childhood & Early life

By 1946, she graduated ranking sixth from ‘Austin High School’. With an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, she enrolled in ‘Stanford University’ and graduated with a B.A. in Economics in 1950.

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Childhood & Early life

She was accepted into the ‘Stanford Law School’ for a LL.B degree and graduated two years later in 1952 ranking third in her batch.

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Childhood & Early life

On a bulletin board in the university she acquired the phone numbers of several firms hiring lawyers. However, even after many attempts none were willing to recruit a female lawyer.

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Childhood & Early life

She finally began to work with an advocate as a deputy county attorney in California on the condition that she wouldn’t charge a salary until the advocate had sufficient to pay, and that she would work without a designated office.

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Early Career

She later moved to Germany and worked as a civilian attorney for three years at the Army’s ‘Quartermaster Corps’ before returning to America. Upon her return she assisted in the presidential campaign of Arizona Senator, Barry M. Goldwater.

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Early Career

In 1965, she was appointed as ‘Assistant Attorney General of Arizona’ for a period of four years. In 1973, she was elected to the State Senate as a Majority Leader and later served at the ‘Maricopa County Superior Court’ until 1979.

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Early Career

Her efforts to empower women were rewarded and she was promoted to the ‘Arizona State Court of Appeals’, where she worked at the ‘Court of Appeals-Division One’.

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Early Career

During the 1980 presidential campaign, Reagan promised to nominate a lady to the Supreme Court, which he fulfilled on 7th July, 1981 when he nominated Sandra Day O’Connor as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.

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The Supreme Court

Her nomination received opposition from pro-life and religious groups as well as a few US Senate Republicans. However, her nomination was confirmed by the U.S. Senate and in her first year she received more pleas from commoners than any justice had ever received before.

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The Supreme Court

In her initial years, she aligned her votes with the conservative William Rehnquist and approached cases in a restrained manner and avoided generalisations.

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The Supreme Court

As years progressed, the court grew more conservative. In many cases she held the swing vote and often disappointed the more liberal bloc of the court. Her votes held a ratio of 82 to 28, the former being in favour of the conservatives.

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The Supreme Court