Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and Justice Antonin Scalia at an Appropriations subcommittee hearing in May 1992. That set her along the path that would lead to President Ronald Reagan making her the first woman on the high court. She went on to become majority leader, another first for a woman in the Legislature, before opting to run for election to a local judgeship. In 1969, she was appointed to an Arizona state Senate seat, then won election to it outright in 1970. Bush White House and his work for independent counsel Kenneth Starr during the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, he could be an impartial jurist given his history in politics.īut O’Connor showed that a political career need not necessarily taint a jurist’s.
Kavanaugh, was a bitterly partisan one that partially centered on whether, given his background in the George W. The confirmation fight for the newest justice, Brett M. I feel so strongly about the topic because I’ve seen first-hand how vital it is for all citizens to understand our Constitution and unique system of government, and participate actively in their communities,” she wrote in the letter announcing her decision on Tuesday. “Not long after I retired from the Supreme Court twelve years ago, I made a commitment to myself, my family, and my country that I would use whatever years I had left to advance civic learning and engagement. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor arrives for the Inauguration Ceremony for President Barack Obama on the West Front of the U.S. In making her announcement, O’Connor reminded the nation that the high court, on which she served from 1981 to 2006, was bookended by public service not only as a judge but as an accomplished state legislator and elder stateswoman on political engagement through her founding of the group iCivics. Public life,” something that defined her career. Sandra Day O’Connor’s announcement Tuesday that she was stepping away from public life brings into stark relief not just the legacy of the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court, but that of a fading model for what a justice could be: a politician actively engaged in the civic arena.Ĭiting a dementia diagnosis that would most likely progress to Alzheimer’s disease, the 88-year-old said she was “no longer able to participate in
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