From the early 1990s until her retirement in 2005, she was the indisputable swing justice
Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court and the justice who held the court’s center for more than a generation, died Friday, the court said in a statement.
Her cause of death was complications related to advanced dementia and a respiratory illness. She was 93.
Chief Justice John Roberts said in a statement that O’Connor “blazed an historic trail as our nation’s first female justice.”
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He said the justices “mourn the loss of a beloved colleague, a fiercely independent defender of the rule of law, and an eloquent advocate for civics education.”
She sometimes sided with the court’s conservatives, approving taxpayer-funded vouchers for students at religious schools, voting to end the 2000 Florida recount between George W. Bush and Al Gore, and advocating for states’ rights against federal control.
But she joined with the court’s liberals in upholding affirmative action in college admissions, approving the creation of more congressional districts with African-American voters in the majority, and keeping a wall of separation between government and religion.
She graduated from law school at Stanford University, where she met her future husband, John, and struck up a lifelong friendship with William Rehnquist, a classmate who would eventually become the nation’s chief justice.
An encounter at formal dinner with Washington Redskins star John Riggins made national headlines when he told her at one point, “Loosen up, Sandy baby.”
At age 75, O’Connor abruptly announced her intention to step down from the Supreme Court to attend to John, who was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
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