NYSBA mourns loss of pioneering justice Sandra Day O’Connor

December 5, 2023 Robert Abruzzese, Courthouse Editor

Sandra Day O'Connor, a trailblazer in the U.S. Supreme Court, is remembered for her significant influence on key national issues and her unwavering grace in personal and professional challenges.
Photo: Harry Cabluck/AP

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The New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) sent out an announcement on Friday mourning the passing of Sandra Day O’Connor, the U.S. Supreme Court’s first female justice.

Richard Lewis, NYSBA president, praised Justice O’Connor’s profound influence on critical national issues and her trailblazing journey from an Arizona ranch to the nation’s highest court.

Lewis highlighted her analytical brilliance and her ability to unite opposing views, especially in personal battles against dementia and her husband’s Alzheimer’s disease. Appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981, O’Connor served as a Supreme Court Justice until 2006.

“As the first female justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, Sandra Day O’Connor occupies a special place in our nation’s history,” Lewis said. “On every critical issue — affirmative action, abortion, voting rights, religion, and sex discrimination — she exercised an enormous influence on the nation’s psyche. For decades, she was the country’s most influential woman, rising to that lofty position from her roots on a ranch in Arizona.

“She was revered for her courage and honesty as well as for her analytical mind, stellar judgment and uncanny ability to read the mood of the nation. While all her accomplishments were extraordinary, her grace in facing her husband’s Alzheimer’s disease moved me deeply. When she retired from public life at 88 to face her own dementia, it was with the poise and self-assurance that you’d expect from a person of her stature. I hope that her ability to bring together two sides on a polarizing issue will remain as an inspiration to all of us long after her death.”

Sandra Day O’Connor, born in 1930 in El Paso, Texas, graduated from Stanford University with a BA in Economics and a law degree, and faced early career challenges as an early woman in the law. She served as an attorney, Arizona’s assistant attorney general, the first female majority leader in any state senate, a county judge, and an Arizona Court of Appeals judge before her historic appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1981.