Who Is Sandra Day O’Connor?

My VIP for this week is former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor passed way last Friday at the age of 93 years due to “complications related to advanced dementia.” O’Connor was the first woman appointed to the United States Supreme Court and inspired other women to aspire to the high court. She was concerned that she would be the last woman, but she was followed by five other women to be appointed to the Supreme Court. 

Appointed to the Supreme Court by President Ronald Reagan in 1981 and served until 2006 when she retired to give full time care to her husband who had Alzheimer’s Disease. He passed away in 2009. 

O’Connor was known as a moderate conservative who was often the swing vote on “hot-button social issues.” Before she died, she saw the current conservative-leaning court overturn an abortion decision that she helped to write in 1992, “lower the bar between church and state,” and turn its attention to affirmative action – all areas of interest to her. 

O’Connor wrote a letter in 2018 announcing that she had been diagnosed with the beginning stages of dementia, which was probably Alzheimer’s disease. She also expressed her gratitude for her “countless blessings.”