(NewsNation) — Sandra Day O’Connor, a legal and legislative trailblazer who was the first woman appointed to the United States Supreme Court, has died. She was 93.
Nominated by former President Ronald Reagan in 1981, O’Connor served on the bench until 2006, casting votes in landmark cases including Gore v. Bush and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
Abortion rights opponents had sought to defeat O’Connor’s nomination, fearful that she would tolerate abortion and not vote to overturn Roe v. Wade. They were partially right. O’Connor did not vote to strike down any restrictions on abortion until Hodgson v. Minnesota in 1990, and in 1992 co-authored the lead opinion in Casey, which upheld, though limited, the right to have an abortion.
A moderate conservative, O’Connor was considered a swing vote for the Rehnquist Court and the first five months of the Roberts court. She was known for her pragmatism and methodical, thoroughly researched opinions.
O’Connor was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009.
In 2018 O’Connor announced she had been diagnosed with early-stage dementia and would withdraw from public life.
O’Connor was born March 26, 1930, in El Paso, Texas, to Harry Alfred and Ada Mae Day. The family lived on a cattle ranch in southeastern Arizona, where O’Connor grew resourceful and learned to brand cattle.
At the age of 4, O’Connor moved to El Paso to live with her grandmother to attend school, first at the Radford School for Girls and then Austin High School. In the summers, O’Connor returned home to spend time at the family ranch.
O’Connor received her bachelor’s degree in 1950 and her law degree in 1952, both from Stanford University. Her first job out of college was as deputy county attorney in San Mateo, California, working for no salary.
She spent a brief period in Germany after marrying John O’Connor, who served as an attorney in the U.S. Army. The couple had three children between 1957 and 1962 after returning to Arizona.
After becoming assistant attorney general in Arizona in 1965, O’Connor was appointed to the Arizona State Senate four years later. Three years after that, upon winning elections in 1970 and 1972, O’Connor was chosen as the Arizona Senate’s Republican majority leader, the first woman in the country to hold the position.
O’Connor left the state legislature in 1974 to enter the judicial branch and was elected Maricopa County Superior Court judge, a position she held for five years before being appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals.
Two years later, she ascended to her post on the highest court in the country.