Current:Home > ScamsJustice Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court, to lie in repose-InfoLens
Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court, to lie in repose
View Date:2024-12-23 16:32:33
WASHINGTON (AP) — The late Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court and an unwavering voice of moderate conservatism for more than two decades, will lie in repose in the court’s Great Hall on Monday.
O’Connor, an Arizona native, died Dec. 1 at age 93.
Her casket will be carried up the steps in front of the court, passing under the iconic words engraved on the pediment, “Equal Justice Under Law,” and placed in the court’s Great Hall. C-SPAN will broadcast a private ceremony held before the hall is open to the public, allowing people to pay their respects afterward, from 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.
The last justice who lay in repose at the court was Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the second female justice. After her death in 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic, mourners passed by her casket outside the building, on the portico at the top of the steps.
Funeral services for O’Connor are set for Tuesday at Washington National Cathedral, where President Joe Biden and Chief Justice John Roberts are scheduled to speak.
O’Connor was nominated in 1981 by President Ronald Reagan and subsequently confirmed by the Senate, ending 191 years of male exclusivity on the high court. A rancher’s daughter who was largely unknown on the national scene until her appointment, she received more letters than any one member in the court’s history in her first year and would come to be referred to as the nation’s most powerful woman.
She wielded considerable sway on the nine-member court, generally favoring states in disputes with the federal government and often siding with police when they faced claims of violating people’s rights. Her influence could perhaps best be seen, though, on the court’s rulings on abortion. She twice joined the majority in decisions that upheld and reaffirmed Roe v. Wade, the decision that said women have a constitutional right to abortion.
Thirty years after that decision, a more conservative court overturned Roe, and the opinion was written by the man who took her place, Justice Samuel Alito.
O’Connor grew up riding horses, rounding up cattle and driving trucks and tractors on the family’s sprawling Arizona ranch and developed a tenacious, independent spirit.
She was a top-ranked graduate of Stanford’s law school in 1952, but quickly discovered that most large law firms at the time did not hire women. One Los Angeles firm offered her a job as a secretary.
She built a career that included service as a member of the Arizona Legislature and state judge before her appointment to the Supreme Court at age 51. When she first arrived, she didn’t even have a place anywhere near the courtroom to go to the bathroom. That was soon rectified, but she remained the court’s only woman until 1993.
She retired at age 75, citing her husband’s struggle with Alzheimer’s disease as her primary reason for leaving the court. John O’Connor died three years later, in 2009.
After her retirement, O’Connor remained active, sitting as a judge on several federal appeals courts, advocating for judicial independence and serving on the Iraq Study Group. President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
She expressed regret that a woman had not been chosen to replace her, but lived to see a record four women now serving at the same time on the Supreme Court.
She died in Phoenix, of complications related to advanced dementia and a respiratory illness. Her survivors include her three sons, Scott, Brian and Jay, six grandchildren and a brother.
The family has asked that donations be made to iCivics, the group she founded to promote civics education.
___
Associated Press writer Mark Sherman contributed to this report.
veryGood! (9)
Related
- LSU leads college football Week 11 Misery Index after College Football Playoff hopes go bust
- Saoirse Ronan secretly married her 'Mary Queen of Scots' co-star Jack Lowden in Scotland
- Simone Biles and Team USA take aim at gold in the women’s gymnastics team final
- 2024 Olympics: Egyptian Fencer Nada Hafez Shares She Competed in Paris Games While 7 Months Pregnant
- Black women notch historic Senate wins in an election year defined by potential firsts
- Investigation finds at least 973 Native American children died in abusive US boarding schools
- Earthquakes happen all the time, you just can't feel them. A guide to how they're measured
- Spirit Airlines is going upscale. In a break from its history, it will offer fares with extra perks
- Amazon Black Friday 2024 sales event will start Nov. 21: See some of the deals
- Earthquakes happen all the time, you just can't feel them. A guide to how they're measured
Ranking
- Mariah Carey's Amazon Holiday Merch Is All I Want for Christmas—and It's Selling Out Fast!
- Olympics 2024: Brazilian Gymnast Flavia Saraiva Competes With Black Eye After Scary Fall
- Bodies of 2 kayakers recovered from Sheyenne River in North Dakota
- Trial canceled in North Dakota abortion ban lawsuit as judge ponders dismissal
- College Football Playoff bracket: Complete playoff picture after latest rankings
- Look: Ravens' Derrick Henry reviews USA rugby's Ilona Maher's viral stiff arm in 2024 Paris Olympics: 'She got it'
- More Chinese swimmers secretly tested positive, blamed hamburgers: Report
- Delaware gubernatorial candidate calls for investigation into primary rival’s campaign finances
Recommendation
-
Report: Jaguars' Trevor Lawrence could miss rest of season with shoulder injury
-
Taylor Swift 'at a complete loss' after UK mass stabbing leaves 3 children dead
-
Construction company in Idaho airport hangar collapse ignored safety standards, OSHA says
-
Wisconsin man sentenced for threatening to shoot lawmakers if they passed a bill to arm teachers
-
Kelly Rowland and Nelly Reunite for Iconic Performance of Dilemma 2 Decades Later
-
Frederick Richard next poster athlete for men's gymnastics after team bronze performance
-
Senate set to pass bill designed to protect kids from dangerous online content
-
Tesla recalling more than 1.8M vehicles due to hood issue