SOT: Reporter: After forty years of the GOP leading on this issue, Ronald Reagan is now going to be perceived, rightly or wrongly as against women’s rights. Evan Thomas, Author, First: Sandra O'Connor's view towards pretty much everything was, "Power through." I am old. Together, the couple were blessed with three sons - the eldest Scott followed by Brian and Jay.Her husband suffered from Alzheimer's disease for nearly 20 years, until his death in 2009, and she became involved in raising awareness of the disease. The remarkable story of Sandra Day O'Connor's family and early life, her journey to adulthood in the American Southwest that helped make her the woman she is today: the first female justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and one of the most powerful women in America. The interest, of course, in protecting the life of the unborn child. Now! SOT: [O'Connor] Only a third of Americans can even name the three branches of government, much less say what they do. Will the Courts send Bush to the White House or Al Gore? I think you'll make a heck of a good judge; but I'm a little disturbed about the reluctance to answer any questions. But she'd nevertheless arrived at the Arizona statehouse with an equal opportunity agenda of her own. Narrator: Instead, in the fall of 2000, after nearly two decades on the bench, she found herself confronting a problem for which there was no nuanced solution. Narrator: To Scalia, it amounted to an abrogation of the Court's duty––and he excoriated the majority for what he called its "indecisive decision." And the employer could be liable to the minorities for apparent discrimination on the one hand. Oscie Thomas, Collaborator, First: John was civic-minded. O'Connor and her husband became active in local politics and community organizations, which helped lay the groundwork for her later election as a state senator. A moderate conservative, she was known for her dispassionate and meticulously researched opinions.She was named the most powerful women in the world. And that’s the kind of thing that Sandra Day O'Connor didn’t like. Alisa Placas Frutman, Archival Animations  Tsering Yangzom, Director of Digital Content  Estate of Michael Nagy Susan Bellows. I don't give her six months. Linda Hirshman, Writer: So she got involved in this up-and-coming Republican party, which was a very smart move, because when she decided to go back to work, she could rattle her political network and get what she wanted, which was a paying job. Jane Stromseth Evan Thomas, Author, First: She made it her business to change every single one of those laws, and she did––without getting into a fight that would have been great for virtue signaling but wouldn't have gotten anywhere. He had an agenda, and it was to set things right by his view, his view that the only legitimate method of constitutional interpretation was to try to figure out what the original meaning would have been to the 18th century founding fathers. In 2006 O’Connor retired from the Supreme Court and was replaced by Samuel Alito. In this story, based on a true-life incident, young Sandra demonstrates the forthright spirit that gave her the courage and confidence to become the first woman to serve on the United States Supreme Court. Early Life, Education & Career . src="" alt="" class="gallery-slider__content__img" height="", data-src="/web/show-photo.jpg?id=2498058&cache=false" Beginning in 1989, she served on the Arizona Court of Appeals. And they'd write and write and write, and then they would trade pads and edit each other's work, and it would turn into a bill at the legislature the next—you know, on Monday. We now stand adjourned. Linda Hirshman, Writer: She was a Republican nominee from a very conservative president. src="" alt="" class="gallery-slider__content__img" height="", data-src="/web/show-photo.jpg?id=2498044&cache=false" Sandra Day at age 16, 1946. Sandra Day O'Connor. SOT: [Woman] You want to kill women, that's what you want to do. Arizona State Library, Archives And Public Records, History and Archives Division A former Dean of the Harvard Law School, Kagan's name has been included on many peoples' short list of possible candidates to the Supreme Court to replace Justice David Souter, who is retiring this year. Despite their differences, the first and second female Supreme Court justices found common ground on women’s equality. in Economics in 1950. Found insideThis series is divided into three volumes, with each part containing multiple case studies. (April 29, 2011 - Source: Leigh Vogel/Getty Images North America), Andrea Mitchell (R) moderates a conversation with (L-R) Gordon Wood, Sandra Day O'Connor, and Jim Lehrer, the recipients of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation's highest accolade, the Churchill Bell, for citizenship on April 30, 2011 in Williamsburg, Virginia. Ivan Fong Tom Goodwin was a drunk-by-10-AM drunk, a real drunk, and he would just disappear with the budget. This is the most important appointment that President Reagan could make. She was the vehicle. Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, ASU He never forgot it. The remarkable story of Sandra Day O'Connor's family and early life, her journey to adulthood in the American Southwest that helped make her the woman she is today—the first female justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, and one of the most powerful women in America. Born on March 26, 1930, in El Paso, Texas, Sandra Day was the oldest of three children. Language: English. There was constant media coverage. But it normalized having women on the Supreme Court. Shayala Jayasingh, Cinematography By Viet Dinh, Former Law Clerk: She recognizes the incredible racial injustice that defines our country’s history. Fun Facts Sandra Day O'Connor was born in 1930 in El Paso, Texas. Evan Thomas, Author, First: At the Supreme Court conference, the vote is tied; four justices say yes, four justices say no. It was really counter to her way of being in the world. SOT: [Bush] I just called Governor Clinton over in Little Rock and offered my congratulations... Narrator: The Bushes were friends––she and Barbara played tennis regularly––and she was sorry to see them leave Washington. Linda Hirshman, Writer: In 1980, the Republican Party affirmatively removed support for the Equal Rights Amendment from its platform and took their first anti-abortion stance. The WPA Film Library And of course she knew they did when she came on to the bench wearing a wig. So they had these t-shirts made, "I’m Ruth, not Sandra," and, "I’m Sandra, not Ruth." And she absolutely wowed them. O'Connor was displeased––in part, because she thought the cover image made her look like George Washington. It’s the first time judicial confirmation hearings have been run on TV gavel to gavel. Linda Hirshman, Writer: Arizona was really a frontier place in the 30’s when she was growing up, so everybody had to pitch in. During the 1980 campaign, Ronald Reagan made a promise to nominate the first . A moderate conservative, she was known for her dispassionate and meticulously researched opinions.. Sandra Day grew up on a large family ranch near Duncan, Arizona. And she comes to Washington in mid-life, in a bright spotlight, a figure of history the minute she took that oath, exposed to controversies, doctrines, ideas that she had never had occasion to enmesh herself in. Narrator: The confirmation of a woman had put every politician in the room on the right side of history––and exactly the right sort of woman on the bench. ""Yes, I will bring the understanding of a woman to the Court, but I doubt that alone will affect my decisions.". Publishers Weekly, May 28, 2009. src="" alt="" class="gallery-slider__content__img" height="", data-src="/web/show-photo.jpg?id=2498007&cache=false" The New York Times bestseller from master biographer Evan Thomas brings to life the tumultuous story of the father of the American Navy. John Paul Jones, at sea and in the heat of the battle, was the great American hero of the Age of Sail. The Majesty of the Law: Reflections of a Supreme Court Justice, Lazy B: Growing Up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest, Out of Order: Stories from the History of the Supreme Court - Kindle edition, Sisters in Law: How Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg Went to the Supreme Court and Changed the World, Sandra Day O'Connor: How the First Woman on the Supreme Court Became Its Most Influential Justice, Sandra Day O'Connor: Justice in the Balance (Women's Biography Series), Sandra Day O'Connor: Supreme Court Justice (Gateway Biography), Maricopa County Superior Court for Division 31, Arizona Court of Appeals for Division One. But when she greeted a friend of her son who was soon to begin a clerkship for Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist, her mood shifted. But on a much more profound level, she believed in the unwritten laws of democracy, that you have to be respectful of the other side and you have to work out problems with people you don’t necessarily agree with. Narrator: Shipped off to her grandmother in El Paso for the school term from the age of six, Sandra made it her business to excel––skipping two grades and enrolling at Stanford when she was just 16. Narrator: O'Connor had championed the amendment then––taking to the floor of the Senate to urge her colleagues to ratify. Narrator: It was an abrupt about-face: the Republican Party had endorsed the ERA for four decades. [O'Connor] The tombstone question. Narrator: Years later, speaking publicly about her cancer for the first time, O'Connor would recall the speculation that had swirled around her that fall as she clung to her work, desperate for a sense of normalcy. Alamy Stock Photo Narrator: Curious, self-motivated, always prepared, Sandra sailed through her undergraduate courses––and inspired by a charismatic lecturer named Harry Rathbun, continued on to study law. Linda Hirshman, Writer: She was smart, and she was staggeringly energetic, and she could carry both roles, the conventional female role that made her not scary, and the tough-minded judicial role that made her powerful. Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, has just revealed that she will be retiring from public life after being diagnosed with dementia, 'probably . Narrator: Sandra, though, was restless. Alfred P. Sloan Foundation SOT: Mrs. O'Connor took her seat for the opening argument, a case about oil leases. Connie Honeycutt As a state Court of Appeals judge, she dealt with state issues. People are thinking it was maybe Souter, who went to his friend, Kennedy and said, we don’t want to do this. I remember Justice White telling me that it isn't just a change of a justice, the Court itself changes. One was race. In a 5-to-4 ruling, the Court decided not allow any further counting of the disputed votes in Florida. 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