August 19, 1981 – Sandra Day O’Connor Nominated to the Supreme Court

Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States, was born in El Paso, Texas on March 26, 1930. At sixteen, she was admitted to Stanford University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in economics. In 1950 she was admitted to Stanford Law, completing the course in just two years instead of the usual three. She graduated third in her class, with one of the students ahead of her being fellow future justice, William H. Rehnquist. As Oyez reports:

Despite her impeccable qualifications, Sandra Day O’Connor struggled to find employment in the legal field due to a heavy bias against women as attorneys. She began her legal career working for the county attorney of San Mateo for free, after turning down a paid position as a legal secretary. Once she proved herself as an asset, she got a job as the deputy county attorney.”

Moving to Arizona with her husband, in 1965 she began working as the Assistant Attorney General. In 1969, she was appointed to the Arizona State Senate to fill a vacated seat. In 1970, she kept that seat when she was elected to the State Senate for a full term as a Republican. She was reelected to that position twice, even serving as the first female majority leader in any state senate.

In 1975 she won the election for a seat in the Superior Court of Maricopa County, and was appointed to the Arizona Supreme Court of Appeals four years later. She worked in the state supreme court for only two years before President Ronald Reagan nominated her on this day in 1981 to become the first female justice to serve on the United States Supreme Court. She was unanimously approved by the Senate.

As she later told NPR:

I was working in my office on the Arizona Court of Appeals. I was at the court in my chambers when the telephone rang. And it was the White House calling for me, and I was told that the president was waiting to speak to me. That was quite a shock, but I accepted the phone call, and it was President Reagan, and he said, ‘Sandra?’ ‘Yes, Mr. President?’ ‘Sandra, I’d like to announce your nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court tomorrow. Is that all right with you?’ Well, now, that’s kind of a shock, wouldn’t you say?”

Sandra Day O’Connor is sworn in as an associate justice by Chief Justice Warren Burger on Sept. 25, 1981. Holding two family Bibles is husband John Jay O’Connor.
Michael Evans/AP

Two years after O’Connor joined the Court, The New York Times published an editorial which mentioned the “nine men” of the “SCOTUS,” or Supreme Court of the United States. O’Connor responded with a letter to the editor reminding the Times that the Court was no longer composed of nine men and referred to herself as FWOTSC (First Woman On The Supreme Court).

Over the course of her two decades on the court, the conservative justice became known as a somewhat unpredictable voter. She was known for being a majority builder whenever possible, but also for being a swing vote in the divisive cases. In cases lacking a consensus, she wrote as narrow a decision as possible. She retired from the bench in 2006 to care for her husband, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

On August 12, 2009, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.