Sandra Day O'Connor

By Erick Amezcua

Sandra Day O'Connor is known as the first women to serve in the Supreme Court of the United States of America. O'Connor was born in El Paso, Texas on March 26, 1930. O'Connor spent her childhood in her family's ranch in Arizona known as The Lazy B.

O'Connor was very smart at a young age. Her family wanted to place her in a school but schooling options in the ranch were limited for young women. Her parents sent her to live with her grandmother, who lived in El Paso, Texas in order to receive a good education. O'Connor was an excellent student and graduated high school two years early.

Radford School for Girls

Austin High School

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O'Connor went to Stanford University at the age of 16 and received her Bachelor in Economics. In 1950, she was admitted to Stanford Law. She finished law school in two years. During the time of being in law school, she met her husband John Jay O'Connor. They married after they graduated law school. O'Connor struggled finding a job because of a big bias against women as attorneys.

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O'Connor started working as an attorney in the county of San Mateo for free. Once she proved herself as an asset, she got a job as the deputy county attorney. In 1954 O’Connor left California to work in Frankfurt and in 1957 she returned to California. She settled in Arizona with her husband and created a private practice with another attorney.

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Eight years later, she began working as the Assistant Attorney General of Arizona. In 1969, O'Connor was appointed to the Arizona state Senate to fill a vacated seat. In 1970, she kept that seat when she was elected to the State Senate for a full term as a Republican. She was reelected to that twice. She was even serving as the first female majority leader in any state senate.

O'Connor worked in the state Supreme Court. Worked for two years and president Ronold Reagan nominated her in 1981 to become the first female justice yo serve on the United states Supreme Court. Justice by drafting the majority opinion in Mississippi university for Women v. Hogan. This case involved gender discrimination in which a man sued after being denied admission to the traditionally all-female nursing school.

In 2006 O’Connor retired from the Supreme Court and was replaced by Sameul Alito. She was the author of several books, And most of them were based on her child hood experience. One of them was named The Lazy B. She Also did a book with her brother H. Alan.

In 2009 O'Connor was awarded by president Barack Oboma, She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In a letter in 2018 she announced that she had been diagnosed with early-stage dementia and would withdraw from public life.

Sandra Day O'Connor was a very successful. After her retirement she began teaching american youth. She taught them how to become involved in civics and government. She founded a website called ICivics where he taught civic engagement.