O'Connor, Sandra Day (1930-)

Early Years

O'Connor was born on March 26, 1930, in El Paso, Texas, the daughter of Harry A. Day and Ad Mae Wilkey Day. In 1952, she married John Jay O'Connor III; they have three sons, Scott, Brian, and Jay. She graduated from high school at 16 and received her BAin Economics at Stanford University in 1950, graduating magna cum laude.

O'Connor continued at Stanford Law School, serving as the editor of the Stanford Law Review and a member of Order of the Coif, a legal honorary society. She received her LLB in 1952, graduating third in her class, which also included William Rehnquist, future chief justice of the Supreme Court, as valedictorian.

The road for a woman in the judiciary or in politics was not easy at this time in the history of the United States. Despite her accomplishments, O'Connor was unable to gain employment as a lawyer; one firm offered her a position as a legal secretary. She therefore turned to public service, taking a position as deputy county attorney of San Mateo County, California (1952–1953), and working as an attorney for the Quartermaster Market Center in Frankfurt, Germany, from 1954 to 1957. O'Connor was able to practice law from 1958 to 1960 in Phoenix, Arizona, and served as the assistant attorney general of Arizona from 1965 to 1969.

In 1969, O'Connor's path moved to politics when she was appointed to the Arizona State Senate and reelected to two additional terms. In 1973, she became the first woman to serve as a state senate majority leader in any state. Prior to her appointment to the Supreme Court, O'Connor was elected judge of the Maricopa County Superior Court in Phoenix, Arizona, serving from 1975 to 1979. She was then appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals and served from 1979 to 1981.

Court Record

O'Connor was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Ronald Reagan on July 7, 1981, and was confirmed by the U.S. Senate (99-0) on September 22 of that year. She replaced Justice Potter Stewart, who retired after 23 years on the Court.

In education, Justice O'Connor wrote for a 5-to-4 majority in Agostini v. Felton (1997), an important case in Establishment Clause law upholding the provision of publicly funded educational programs designed to benefit students attending religion-affiliated schools. She advocated the adoption and application of the “endorsement test” in Establishment Clause cases, explaining that public school decisions involving religion should be judged on their intent to endorse and whether they conveyed a message of endorsement or whether school officials sent “a message to nonadherents that they are outsiders, not full members of the political community” (Lynch v. Donnelly, 1984, p. 688). Justice O'Connor also advocated the application of the endorsement test in a concurring opinion in Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow (2004), wherein the Court rejected a claim to the inclusion of the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance on the basis that the plaintiff lacked standing.

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