Multiplying Good joins the nation in mourning the loss of former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. She was a trailblazer, serving as the first woman majority leader of a state senate in Arizona from 1973 to 1974, and later as the first woman justice on the U.S. Supreme Court from 1981 to 2006.
Justice O’Connor was honored with the U.S. Senator John Heinz Award for Outstanding Public Service by an Elected or Appointed Official in 2004.
Born in El Paso, TX, she grew up on a cattle ranch in Arizona. A brilliant student, she enrolled at Stanford University when she was 16, graduated magna cum laude, and continued to the Law School where she was on the Stanford Law Review staff with future chief justice William Rehnquist. She graduated in the top 10% of her class. She married John Jay O'Connor III after graduating and they had three sons. She had trouble finding a job after law school because of her gender, and when her husband was drafted, she moved with him to Germany where she worked as a civilian attorney for the Army's Quartermaster Corps.
Undaunted by the lack of opportunity for women in the legal field, she raised her children and became active in politics through the Maricopa County Young Republicans, public health through Arizona State Hospital, and charity through the Salvation Army. Sharp, self-confident, and pragmatic, she was appointed an assistant attorney general in Arizona in 1965, and rose first through the legislature, and then the judiciary all the way to the Supreme Court. She was nominated by President Ronald Reagan and approved by the U.S. Senate in a unanimous 99-0 vote.
Justice O’Connor was dedicated to service, serving the public in a variety of roles, from Deputy County attorney in San Mateo, CA, to assistant state attorney general and later state senator of Arizona, and finally as a judge on the Superior Court of Arizona, the Arizona State Court of Appeals, and ultimately the Supreme Court of the United States. She retired from the Supreme Court in 2006 to care for her husband, who had Alzheimer's disease.
In retirement, she became involved in raising awareness about the disease and launched the Sandra Day O'Connor Institute, which is dedicated to promoting civil discourse, civic engagement, and education. In 2008, she was honored by the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School with the Charles Hamilton Houston Justice Award along with Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Dolores Huerta. Justice O’Connor was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama in 2009.
