Sandra Day O'Connor

{{external media| float = left| video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?168338-1/lazy-b-growing-cattle-ranch Booknotes interview with O'Connor on Lazy B: Growing Up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest, January 27, 2002], C-SPAN}}

Sandra Day was born on March 26, 1930, in El Paso, Texas, the daughter of Harry Alfred Day, a rancher, and Ada Mae (Wilkey).{{cite web |last1=Murray |first1=Ashley |title=Sandra Day O'Connor, who made history as the first woman on the Supreme Court, dies at 93 |date=December 2023 |url=https://oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2023/12/01/sandra-day-oconnor-who-made-history-as-the-first-woman-on-the-supreme-court-dies-at-93/ |work=Oregon Capital Chronicle |access-date=December 2, 2023 |archive-date=December 7, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207112805/https://oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2023/12/01/sandra-day-oconnor-who-made-history-as-the-first-woman-on-the-supreme-court-dies-at-93/ |url-status=live }}{{cite news|url = https://www.cnn.com/2013/01/30/us/sandra-day-oconnor-fast-facts/index.html|title = Sandra Day O'Connor Fast Facts|date = December 1, 2023|access-date = December 1, 2023|publisher = CNN|archive-date = May 19, 2023|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230519025657/https://www.cnn.com/2013/01/30/us/sandra-day-oconnor-fast-facts/index.html|url-status = live}}See {{cite web |url=https://www.oyez.org/justices/sandra_day_oconnor |title=Sandra Day O'Connor |website=Oyez |access-date=June 27, 2017 |archive-date=March 17, 2007 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070317202723/https://www.oyez.org/justices/sandra_day_oconnor |url-status=live }} She grew up on a 198,000-acre family cattle ranch near Duncan, Arizona and in El Paso, where she attended school. Her home was nine miles from the nearest paved road,{{cite news|url=https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2013/04/sandra-day-oconnor-guns-assault-weapons|title=Sandra Day O'Connor on Growing Up with Guns and Her Views on Assault Weapons|last=Heilpern|first=John|date=April 2013|work=The Hive|access-date=August 24, 2017|language=en|archive-date=September 23, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160923025143/http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2013/04/sandra-day-oconnor-guns-assault-weapons|url-status=live}} and did not have running water or electricity until Sandra was seven years old.{{Cite web|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2016/03/29/how-sandra-day-oconnor-became-the-most-powerful-woman-in-1980s-america/|title=How Sandra Day O'Connor became the most powerful woman in 1980s America|last1=Kamen|first1=Al|last2=Williams|first2=Marjorie|date=June 11, 1989|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=October 29, 2017|archive-date=March 30, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160330063935/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2016/03/29/how-sandra-day-oconnor-became-the-most-powerful-woman-in-1980s-america/|url-status=live}} As a youth she owned a .22-caliber rifle, and would shoot coyotes and jackrabbits. She began driving as soon as she could see over the dashboard, and had to learn to change flat tires herself."Book Discussion on Sisters in Law{{-"}} Presenter: Linda Hirshman, author. Politics and Prose Bookstore. BookTV, Washington. September 3, 2015. 13 minutes in. Retrieved September 12, 2015 [http://www.c-span.org/video/?327947-1/linda-hirshman-sisters-law C-Span website] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305042720/http://www.c-span.org/video/?327947-1%2Flinda-hirshman-sisters-law |date=March 5, 2016 }} Sandra had two younger siblings, a sister and a brother, respectively eight and ten years her junior. Her sister Ann Day was a member of the Arizona Legislature from 1990 to 2000.{{cite web|url=http://www.kvoa.com/story/31916809/ann-day-dies-at-the-age-of-77|title=Former Pima County Supervisor Ann Day dies at the age of 77 |author= |access-date=May 8, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160509113130/http://www.kvoa.com/story/31916809/ann-day-dies-at-the-age-of-77|archive-date=May 9, 2016|url-status=dead}} Her brother was H. Alan Day, a lifelong rancher, with whom she wrote Lazy B: Growing up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest (2002), about their childhood experiences on the ranch.{{cite news |title=LAZY B: Growing Up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780375507243 |access-date=December 1, 2023 |work=Publishers Weekly |date=December 10, 2001 |archive-date=January 28, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230128122449/https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780375507243 |url-status=live }} For most of her early schooling, Day lived in El Paso with her maternal grandmother, and attended school at the Radford School for Girls, a private school,{{Cite web|url=https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/history/blogs/tales-from-the-morgue/2008/07/11/radfords-most-famous-alum/31477437/|title=Radford's most famous alumna drops in for a talk|last=Scanlon|first=Michael|date=May 13, 1987|website=El Paso Times|language=en|access-date=January 8, 2020|archive-date=November 8, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211108151021/https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/history/blogs/tales-from-the-morgue/2008/07/11/radfords-most-famous-alum/31477437/|url-status=live}} as the family ranch was very distant from any school, although Day was able to return to the ranch for holidays and the summer. Day did spend her eighth-grade year living at the ranch and riding a bus 32 miles to school. She graduated sixth in her class at Austin High School in El Paso in 1946.{{cite news |url=http://elpasotimes.typepad.com/morgue/2008/07/hometown-star-4.html |title=Hometown stars – Sandra Day O'Connor |date=July 2, 2005 |first=Diana |last=Washington Valdez |work=El Paso Times |access-date=December 19, 2010 |archive-date=April 25, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100425041934/http://elpasotimes.typepad.com/morgue/2008/07/hometown-star-4.html |url-status=live }}

When she was 16 years old, Day enrolled at Stanford University{{Cite book|last=Thomas|first=Evan|title=First: Sandra Day O'Connor|publisher=Random House|year=2019|isbn=978-0399589287|location=New York}}{{Rp|25}} and later graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in economics in 1950.{{Cite web|url=https://alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/magazine/article/?article_id=33312|title=Front and Center|last=Cool|first=Kevin|date=January 1, 2006|website=Stanford Alumni Magazine|publisher=Stanford University|access-date=June 4, 2018|archive-date=May 3, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130503063118/https://alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/magazine/article/?article_id=33312|url-status=live}} She continued at Stanford Law School for her law degree in 1952. There, she served on the Stanford Law Review whose then presiding editor-in-chief was future Supreme Court chief justice William Rehnquist.{{cite news |url=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,161325,00.html |publisher=Fox News |title=Transcript: O'Connor on Fox |date=July 1, 2005 |access-date=December 18, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070523084030/http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,161325,00.html |archive-date=May 23, 2007 |url-status=dead}} Day and Rehnquist also dated in 1950.Biskupic, Joan. Sandra Day O'Connor: How the First Woman on the Supreme Court became its most influential justice. New York: Harper Collins, 2005. The relationship ended upon Rehnquist's graduation and move to Washington, D.C.; however, in 1951, he proposed marriage in a letter,{{Rp|37; 42}} but Day did not accept the proposal (which was one of four she received while a student at Stanford).{{Rp|34}} Day achieved the Order of the Coif, indicating she was in the top 10 percent of her class.{{Rp|43}}{{efn|She stated that she had graduated third in her law school class,{{cite web |url=http://www.amplify.com/viewpoints/q-supreme-court-justice-sandra-day-oconnor |title=Q & A: Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181106204408/https://www.amplify.com/viewpoints/q-supreme-court-justice-sandra-day-oconnor |archive-date=November 6, 2018 |work=amplify.com |access-date=June 13, 2013}} though Stanford's official position is that the law school did not rank students in 1952.{{cite web |first=Debbie |last=Kornmiller |url=http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/advocate/83283.php |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051206182451/http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/advocate/83283.php |archive-date=December 6, 2005 |title=O'Connor's class rank an error that will not die |work=Arizona Daily Star |date=July 10, 2005 |access-date=June 13, 2013}}}}

File:Sandra Day O'Connor, 1974.jpg

While in her final year at Stanford Law School, Day began dating John Jay O'Connor III, who was one class year behind her.{{Rp|39–40}} On December 20, 1952, six months after her graduation, O'Connor and Day married at her family's ranch.{{cite news|url=https://www.smdailyjournal.com/news/local/sandra-day-o-connor-s-peninsula-ties/article_f6d00d70-67a5-11e8-9bc3-a33b5eb945f0.html|title=Sandra Day O'Connor's Peninsula Ties|work=San Mateo Daily Journal|access-date=June 4, 2018 |archive-date=June 7, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190607162102/https://www.smdailyjournal.com/news/local/sandra-day-o-connor-s-peninsula-ties/article_f6d00d70-67a5-11e8-9bc3-a33b5eb945f0.html|url-status=live}}{{Rp|50–51}}

Upon graduation from law school in 1952, O'Connor had difficulty finding a paying job as an attorney in a law firm because of her gender.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/23/us/politics/sandra-day-oconnor-dementia-alzheimers.html|title=Sandra Day O'Connor, First Woman on Supreme Court, Reveals Dementia Diagnosis|last=Haag|first=Matt|date=October 23, 2018|work=The New York Times|access-date=October 26, 2018|language=en|archive-date=October 25, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181025173900/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/23/us/politics/sandra-day-oconnor-dementia-alzheimers.html|url-status=live}} O'Connor found employment as a deputy county attorney in San Mateo, California, after she offered to work for no salary and without an office, sharing space with a secretary.{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/2013/03/05/172982275/out-of-order-at-the-court-oconnor-on-being-the-first-female-justice|title='Out Of Order' At The Court: O'Connor On Being The First Female Justice|date=March 5, 2013|publisher=Fresh Air|access-date=March 5, 2013|archive-date=March 6, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130306033357/http://www.npr.org/2013/03/05/172982275/out-of-order-at-the-court-oconnor-on-being-the-first-female-justice|url-status=live}} After a few months, she began drawing a small salary as she performed legal research and wrote memos.{{Rp|52}} She worked with San Mateo County District Attorney Louis Dematteis and deputy district attorney Keith Sorensen.

When her husband was drafted, O'Connor decided to go with him to work in Germany as a civilian attorney for the Army's Quartermaster Corps.Baughman, J. (Ed.). (2001). O'Connor, Sandra Day 1930–. American Decades, 9. September 21, 2016. They remained there for three years before returning to the States where they settled in Maricopa County, Arizona, and she started a law firm. They had three sons: Scott (born 1958), Brian (born 1960), and Jay (born 1962).{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/11/AR2009111119571.html|title=John J. O'Connor III, 79; husband of Supreme Court justice|date=November 12, 2009|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=October 4, 2012|archive-date=September 13, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140913120148/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/11/AR2009111119571.html|url-status=live}} Following Brian's birth, O'Connor took a five-year hiatus from the practice of law.

She volunteered in various political organizations, such as the Maricopa County Young Republicans, and served on Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater's presidential campaign in 1964.Phelps, S. (Ed.). (2002). O'Connor, Sandra Day (1930– ). World of Criminal Justice, September 20, 2016.

O'Connor served as assistant Attorney General of Arizona from 1965 to 1969. In 1969, the governor of Arizona appointed O'Connor to fill a vacancy in the Arizona Senate. She ran for and won the election for the seat the following year. By 1973, she became the first woman to serve as Arizona's or any state's majority leader.{{Cite web|url=http://apps.azlibrary.gov/officials/Detail.aspx?ID=1047|title=LAPR – State Library of Arizona|website=apps.azlibrary.gov|access-date=March 31, 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170510102422/http://apps.azlibrary.gov/officials/Detail.aspx?ID=1047|archive-date=May 10, 2017}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2016/03/29/how-sandra-day-oconnor-became-the-most-powerful-woman-in-1980s-america/|title=How Sandra Day O'Connor became the most powerful woman in 1980s America|last1=Williams|first1=Marjorie|date=March 29, 2016|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=March 31, 2017|last2=Williams|first2=Marjorie|language=en-US|issn=0190-8286|archive-date=March 30, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160330063935/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2016/03/29/how-sandra-day-oconnor-became-the-most-powerful-woman-in-1980s-america/|url-status=live}} She developed a reputation as a skilled negotiator and a moderate. After serving two full terms, O'Connor decided to leave the Senate.

In 1974, O'Connor was appointed to the Maricopa County Superior Court,{{cite web|title=General Election Canvass, 1974, p. 5|url=http://www.azsos.gov/sites/azsos.gov/files/canvass1974ge.pdf|website=Arizona Secretary of State|access-date=February 25, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161221031035/https://www.azsos.gov/sites/azsos.gov/files/canvass1974ge.pdf|archive-date=December 21, 2016|url-status=dead}} serving from 1975 to 1979 when she was elevated to the Arizona Court of Appeals.

In late 1977 and early 1978, she presided over an aggravated assault case against Clarence Dixon, a 22-year-old Arizona State University student who had attacked a 15-year-old girl with a metal pipe. O'Connor would find Dixon not guilty by reason of insanity and have him remanded to a state hospital. In the four-day period between O'Connor's ruling and Dixon's remanding to hospital, Dixon would rape and murder one of his seniors, 21-year-old Deana Lynne Bowdoin; he would not be arrested until 2001 when DNA evidence identified him, and he was executed for Bowdoin's murder in 2022.{{cite web |author1= |title=Judge Rules That Arizona Death-Row Prisoner Who Had Been Previously Found Legally Insane Is Competent to Be Executed |url=https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/judge-rules-that-arizona-death-row-prisoner-who-had-been-previously-found-legally-insane-is-competent-to-be-executed |website=Death Penalty Information Center |access-date=7 December 2024 |date=6 May 2022}}

She served on the Court of Appeals-Division One until 1981 when she was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Ronald Reagan.{{Cite web|url=http://www.azcourts.gov/coa1/Former-Judges/SANDRA-D-OCONNOR|title=Sandra D. O'Connor|website=azcourts.gov|language=en-US|access-date=March 31, 2017|archive-date=December 30, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161230005439/http://www.azcourts.gov/coa1/Former-Judges/SANDRA-D-OCONNOR|url-status=live}}

{{Conservatism US|jurists}}

File:President Ronald Reagan and Sandra Day O'Connor.jpg outside the White House, July 15, 1981.|left]]

On July 7, 1981, Reagan – who had pledged during his 1980 presidential campaign to appoint the first woman to the Court{{Cite book|title=Presidential Leadership|author1=James Taranto |author2=Leonard Leo |publisher=Wall Street Journal Books|year=2004|url= https://archive.org/details/presidentiallead00tara|url-access=registration|access-date=October 20, 2008 | isbn=978-0743272261}} – announced he would nominate O'Connor as an associate justice of the Supreme Court to replace the retiring Potter Stewart.{{cite web |title=1981 Year in Review: Reagan Foreign Policy Speech/O'Connor Appointed to Supreme Court |url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/Audio/Events-of-1988/Reagan-Foreign-Policy-Speach/OConnor-Appointed-to-Supreme-Court/ |access-date=June 29, 2019 |archive-date=June 29, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190629183133/https://www.upi.com/Archives/Audio/Events-of-1988/Reagan-Foreign-Policy-Speach/OConnor-Appointed-to-Supreme-Court/ |url-status=live }} O'Connor received notification from President Reagan of her nomination on the day prior to the announcement and did not know that she was a finalist for the position.

Reagan wrote in his diary on July 6, 1981: "Called Judge O'Connor and told her she was my nominee for supreme court. Already the flak is starting and from my own supporters. Right to Life people say she is pro abortion. She declares abortion is personally repugnant to her. I think she'll make a good justice."Transcript (January 30, 2008). {{cite news|url=http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/01/30/GOPdebate.transcript/|title=Transcript of GOP debate at Reagan Library|date=June 30, 2008|publisher=CNN|access-date=August 27, 2009|archive-date=May 19, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100519132444/http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/01/30/GOPdebate.transcript/|url-status=live}} O'Connor told Reagan she did not remember whether she had supported repealing Arizona's law banning abortion.{{harvp|Greenburg|2007|p=223}} However, she had cast a preliminary vote in the Arizona State Senate in 1970 in favor of a bill to repeal the state's criminal-abortion statute.{{cite book |isbn=978-0805080575 |title=Becoming Justice Blackmun: Harry Blackmun's Supreme Court Journey |last1=Greenhouse |first1=Linda |year= 2006 |page=[https://archive.org/details/becomingjusticeb00gree/page/141 141] |publisher=Henry Holt and Company |url=https://archive.org/details/becomingjusticeb00gree/page/141 }} In 1974, O'Connor had opined against a measure to prohibit abortions in some Arizona hospitals. Anti-abortion and religious groups opposed O'Connor's nomination because they suspected, correctly, she would not be willing to overturn Roe v. Wade.{{harvp|Greenburg|2007|p=222}} U.S. Senate Republicans, including Don Nickles of Oklahoma, Steve Symms of Idaho, and Jesse Helms of North Carolina called the White House to express their discontent over the nomination; Nickles said he and "other profamily Republican senators would not support O'Connor". Helms, Nickles, and Symms nevertheless reluctantly voted for confirmation.{{Cite journal|year=1981|title=CQ Senate Votes 271–278|url=https://library.cqpress.com/cqalmanac/file.php?path=Floor%20Votes%20Tables/cqal81_1981_Senate_Floor_Votes_274-281.pdf|journal=CQ Almanac|volume=47-S|access-date=November 8, 2021|archive-date=August 7, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210807213708/https://library.cqpress.com/cqalmanac/file.php?path=Floor%20Votes%20Tables%2Fcqal81_1981_Senate_Floor_Votes_274-281.pdf|url-status=live}}

File:Photograph of Sandra Day O'Connor Being Sworn in a Supreme Court Justice by Chief Justice Warren Burger....jpg as her husband John O'Connor looks on.]]

Reagan formally nominated O'Connor on August 19, 1981.{{cite web|last1=U.S. National Archives|title=Reagan's Nomination of O'Connor|url=https://www.archives.gov/legislative/features/oconnor.html|access-date=August 19, 2014|archive-date=July 13, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140713172246/http://www.archives.gov/legislative/features/oconnor.html|url-status=live}} Conservative activists such as the Reverend Jerry Falwell, Howard Phillips, and Peter Gemma also spoke out against the nomination. Gemma called the nomination "a direct contradiction of the Republican platform to everything that candidate Reagan said and even President Reagan has said in regard to social issues."{{cite news|url=http://www.csmonitor.com/1981/0708/070837.html|title=A closer look at nation's first woman high court nominee|author=Julia Malone|date=July 8, 1981|newspaper=The Christian Science Monitor|access-date=May 20, 2016|archive-date=June 29, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160629155810/http://www.csmonitor.com/1981/0708/070837.html|url-status=live}} Gemma, the executive director of the National Pro-Life Political Action Committee, had sought to delay O'Connor's confirmation by challenging her record, including support for the Equal Rights Amendment.{{cite news|url=http://www.csmonitor.com/1981/0903/090343.html|title=New Right strategy: let's drag out O'Connor's confirmation hearing; Focus: abortion, women's rights, school prayer|date=September 3, 1981|author=Julia Malone|newspaper=The Christian Science Monitor|access-date=May 23, 2016|archive-date=June 29, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160629151111/http://www.csmonitor.com/1981/0903/090343.html|url-status=live}}

O'Connor's confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee began on September 9, 1981.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/09/10/us/o-connor-hearings-open-on-a-note-of-friendship.html|title=O'Connor Hearings Open on a Note of Friendship|last=Greenhouse|first=Linda|date=September 10, 1981|work=The New York Times|access-date=June 20, 2017|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=October 29, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171029012648/http://www.nytimes.com/1981/09/10/us/o-connor-hearings-open-on-a-note-of-friendship.html|url-status=live}} It was the first televised confirmation hearing for a Supreme Court justice.{{cite web|url=https://sites.c-span.org/camerasInTheCourt/timeline.html|title=Cameras in the Court|website=c-span.org|access-date=October 27, 2017|archive-date=October 28, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171028093520/https://sites.c-span.org/camerasInTheCourt/timeline.html|url-status=live}} The confirmation hearing lasted three days and largely focused on the issue of abortion.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/09/16/us/panel-approves-judge-o-connor.html|title=Panel Approves Judge O'Connor|last=Greenhouse|first=Linda|date=September 16, 1981|work=The New York Times|access-date=June 20, 2017|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=October 28, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171028200903/http://www.nytimes.com/1981/09/16/us/panel-approves-judge-o-connor.html|url-status=live}} When asked, O'Connor refused to telegraph her views on abortion, and she was careful not to leave the impression that she supported abortion rights.{{harvp|Greenburg|2007|pp=222–223}} The Judiciary Committee approved O'Connor with seventeen votes in favor and one vote of present.

On September 21, O'Connor was confirmed by the U.S. Senate with a vote of 99–0.{{cite web |title=Reagan's Nomination of O'Connor |url=https://www.archives.gov/legislative/features/oconnor.html |publisher=archives.gov |access-date=November 7, 2015 |archive-date=November 8, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151108040348/http://www.archives.gov/legislative/features/oconnor.html|url-status=live}} Only Senator Max Baucus of Montana was absent from the vote. He sent O'Connor a copy of A River Runs Through It by way of apology.{{cite news|last=Lowe|first=Rebecca|title=Supremely confident: the legacy of Sandra Day O'Connor |url=https://www.theguardian.com/law/2011/aug/30/us-supreme-court-george-bush|work=The Guardian|date=August 30, 2011|access-date=December 16, 2016|archive-date=March 18, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170318091111/https://www.theguardian.com/law/2011/aug/30/us-supreme-court-george-bush|url-status=live}} In her first year on the Court, she received over 60,000 letters from the public, more than any other justice in history.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna8433188|title=Sandra Day O'Connor: The reluctant justice|last=Associated Press|date=July 1, 2005|work=nbc.com|access-date=May 20, 2017|archive-date=March 11, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160311021301/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/8433188/ns/us_news-the_changing_court/t/sandra-day-oconnor-reluctant-justice/|url-status=live}}

O'Connor said she felt a responsibility to demonstrate women could do the job of justice. She faced some practical concerns, including the lack of a women's restroom near the Courtroom.

Two years after O'Connor joined the Court, The New York Times published an editorial that mentioned the "nine men"{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/09/29/opinion/topics-in-the-name-of-the-law-legal-abc-s.html|title=Topics: In the Name of the LawOPICS: Legal ABC's|date=September 29, 1983|work=The New York Times|access-date=May 22, 2017|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=February 2, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202063959/http://www.nytimes.com/1983/09/29/opinion/topics-in-the-name-of-the-law-legal-abc-s.html|url-status=live}} 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).{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/10/12/opinion/l-high-court-s-9-men-were-a-surprise-to-one-225413.html|title=High Court's '9 Men' Were a Surprise to One|date=October 12, 1983|work=The New York Times|access-date=June 19, 2017|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=January 24, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180124135906/http://www.nytimes.com/1983/10/12/opinion/l-high-court-s-9-men-were-a-surprise-to-one-225413.html|url-status=live}}

O'Connor was a proponent of collegiality among justices on the court, often insisting that the justices eat lunch together.

In 1993, Ruth Bader Ginsburg became the second female Supreme Court justice.{{Cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/2019/03/15/693542112/from-triumph-to-tragedy-first-tells-story-of-justice-sandra-day-oconnor|title=From Triumph To Tragedy, 'First' Tells Story Of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor|last=Totenberg|first=Nina|date=March 15, 2019|website=NPR.org|language=en|access-date=February 17, 2020|archive-date=February 17, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200217225228/https://www.npr.org/2019/03/15/693542112/from-triumph-to-tragedy-first-tells-story-of-justice-sandra-day-oconnor|url-status=live}} O'Connor said that she felt relief from the media clamor when she no longer was the only woman on the Court.{{Cite web|url=https://www.c-span.org/video/?57167-1/women-bench|title=Women on the Bench {{!}} C-SPAN.org|website=www.c-span.org|language=en-us|access-date=January 29, 2020|archive-date=August 6, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806230339/https://www.c-span.org/video/?57167-1%2Fwomen-bench|url-status=live}} In May 2010, O'Connor warned female Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan about the "unpleasant" process of confirmation hearings.{{cite web|url=https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/sandra-day-oconnor-cautions-elena-kagan-dreadful-nomination/story?id=10754455|title=Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor Backs Elena Kagan Nomination|last=Clarke|first=Suzan|date=May 27, 2010|publisher=ABC News|access-date=December 19, 2010|archive-date=February 1, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110201170640/http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/sandra-day-oconnor-cautions-elena-kagan-dreadful-nomination/story?id=10754455|url-status=live}}

File:O'ConnorGonzalesCloseUp.jpg to the audience after swearing him in as U.S. Attorney General, as Becky Gonzales looks on.]]

Initially, O'Connor's voting record aligned closely with the conservative William Rehnquist (voting with him 87% of the time during her first three years at the Court).{{harvp|Greenburg|2007|p=68}} From that time until 1998, O'Connor's alignment with Rehnquist ranged from 93.4% to 63.2%, hitting above 90% in three of those years.{{cite web |last=Schwartz |first=Herman |date=April 12, 1998 |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-apr-12-op-38686-story.html |title=O'Connor as a 'Centrist'? Not When Minorities Are Involved |work=Los Angeles Times |access-date=February 18, 2020 |archive-date=June 8, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160608082707/http://articles.latimes.com/1998/apr/12/opinion/op-38686 |url-status=live }} In nine of her first 16 years on the Court, O'Connor voted with Rehnquist more than with any other justice.

Later on, as the Court's make-up became more conservative (e.g., Anthony Kennedy replacing Lewis Powell, and Clarence Thomas replacing Thurgood Marshall), O'Connor often became the swing vote on the Court. However, she usually disappointed the Court's more liberal bloc in contentious 5–4 decisions: from 1994 to 2004, she joined the traditional conservative bloc of Rehnquist, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, and Thomas 82 times; she joined the liberal bloc of John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Stephen Breyer only 28 times.{{cite journal |url=http://www.harvardlawreview.org/issues/118/Nov04/Nine_Justices_Ten_YearsFTX.pdf |title=Nine Justices, Ten Years: A Statistical Retrospective |journal=Harvard Law Review |publisher=Harvard University |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |volume= 118 |number=1 |page=521 |date=November 2004 |access-date=August 31, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060327053526/http://www.harvardlawreview.org/issues/118/Nov04/Nine_Justices_Ten_YearsFTX.pdf |archive-date=March 27, 2006}}

O'Connor's relatively small{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14368-2004Oct31.html |title=Justices Too Tightlipped on Their Health? |first=Charles |last=Lane |date=November 1, 2004 |page=A19 |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=December 19, 2010 |archive-date=May 1, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110501115823/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14368-2004Oct31.html |url-status=live }} shift away from conservatives on the Court seems to have been due at least in part to Thomas' views.{{harvp|Greenburg|2007|pp=122–123}} When Thomas and O'Connor were voting on the same side, she would typically write a separate opinion of her own, refusing to join his.{{harvp|Greenburg|2007|pp=123, 134}} In the 1992 term, O'Connor did not join a single one of Thomas's dissents.{{harvp|Greenburg|2007|p=123}}

Some notable cases in which O'Connor joined the majority in a 5–4 decision were:

• McConnell v. FEC, {{ussc|540|93|2003}}, upholding the constitutionality of most of the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance bill regulating "soft money" contributions.{{Cite web|url=https://www.aclu.org/other/cases-which-sandra-day-oconnor-cast-decisive-vote|title=Cases in Which Sandra Day O'Connor Cast the Decisive Vote|website=American Civil Liberties Union|language=en|access-date=April 21, 2019|archive-date=April 21, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190421035447/https://www.aclu.org/other/cases-which-sandra-day-oconnor-cast-decisive-vote|url-status=live}}
• Grutter v. Bollinger, {{ussc|539|306|2003}} and Gratz v. Bollinger, {{ussc|539|244|2003}}, O'Connor wrote the opinion of the Court in Grutter and joined the majority in Gratz. In this pair of cases, the University of Michigan's undergraduate admissions program was held to have engaged in unconstitutional reverse discrimination, but the more limited type of affirmative action in the University of Michigan Law School's admissions program was held to have been constitutional.
• Lockyer v. Andrade, {{ussc|538|63|2003}}: O'Connor wrote the majority opinion, with the four conservative justices concurring, that a 50-year to life sentence without parole for petty shoplifting a few children's videotapes under California's three strikes law was not cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment because there was no "clearly established" law to that effect. Leandro Andrade, a Latino nine-year Army veteran and father of three, will be eligible for parole in 2046 at age 87.
• Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, {{ussc|536|639|2002}}, O'Connor joined the majority holding that the use of school vouchers for religious schools did not violate the First Amendment's Establishment Clause.
• United States v. Lopez, {{ussc|514|549|1995}}: O'Connor joined a majority holding unconstitutional the Gun-Free School Zones Act as beyond Congress' Commerce Clause power.
• Bush v. Gore, {{ussc|531|98|2000}}, O'Connor joined with four other justices on December 12, 2000, to rule on the Bush v. Gore case that ceased challenges to the results of the 2000 presidential election (ruling to stop the ongoing Florida election recount and to allow no further recounts). This case effectively ended Al Gore's hopes to become president. Some legal scholars have argued that she should have recused herself from this case, citing several reports that she became upset when the media initially announced that Gore had won Florida, with her husband explaining that they would have to wait another four years before retiring to Arizona.{{Cite journal | first=Richard K. Jr. |last=Neumann |title=Conflicts of interest in Bush v. Gore: Did some justices vote illegally? |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3975/is_200304/ai_n9221306 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060615061559/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3975/is_200304/ai_n9221306 |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 15, 2006 |journal=Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics |publisher=Georgetown University|location=Washington D.C.|date=Spring 2003 |page=34}} O'Connor expressed surprise that the decision became controversial.{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2004/10/florida-election-2000|title=Behind the aftermath of the 2000 U.S. election|first=David|last=Margolick|magazine=Vanity Fair|date=March 19, 2014|access-date=July 3, 2019|archive-date=January 26, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126114100/http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2004/10/florida-election-2000|url-status=live}} Some people in Washington stopped shaking her hand after the decision, and Arthur Miller confronted her about it at the Kennedy Center.

O'Connor played an important role in other notable cases, such as:

• Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, {{ussc|492|490|1989}}: This decision upheld as constitutional state restrictions on second trimester abortions that are not necessary to protect maternal health, contrary to the original trimester requirements in Roe v. Wade. Although O'Connor joined the majority, which also included Rehnquist, Scalia, Kennedy, and Byron White, in a concurring opinion she refused to explicitly overturn Roe.

On February 22, 2005, with Rehnquist and Stevens (who were senior to her) absent, she became the senior justice presiding over oral arguments in the case of Kelo v. City of New London and becoming the first woman to do so before the Court.{{cite web |last1=Glass |first1=Andrew |title=Senate confirms first female Supreme Court justice, Sept. 21, 1981 |url=https://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/senate-confirms-first-female-supreme-court-justice-sept-21-1981-228285 |date=September 21, 2016 |website=Politico |access-date=March 15, 2020 |archive-date=August 6, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806233501/https://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/senate-confirms-first-female-supreme-court-justice-sept-21-1981-228285 |url-status=live }}

O'Connor was unpredictable in many of her court decisions, especially those regarding First Amendment Establishment Clause issues. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said, "O'Connor was a conservative, but she saw the complexity of church-state issues and tried to choose a course that respected the country's religious diversity" (Hudson 2005). O'Connor voted in favor of religious institutions, such as in Rosenberger v. University of Virginia (1995), Mitchell v. Helms (2000), and Zelman v. Simmons-Harris (2002). Conversely, in Lee v. Weisman she was part of the majority in the case that saw religious prayer and pressure to stand in silence at a graduation ceremony as part of a religious act that coerced people to support or participate in religion, which the Establishment Clause strictly prohibits. This is consistent with a similar case, Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe, involving prayer at a school football game. In this case, O'Connor joined the majority opinion that stated prayer at school football games violates the Establishment Clause. O'Connor was the first justice to articulate the "no endorsement" standard for the Establishment Clause.{{Cite news|url=https://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2013/10/religious-liberty-and-supreme-court|title=Endorsing the endorsement test|last=S.M.|date=October 8, 2013|newspaper=The Economist|access-date=June 21, 2017|archive-date=December 20, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220144859/http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2013/10/religious-liberty-and-supreme-court|url-status=live}} In Lynch v. Donnelly, O'Connor signed onto a five-justice majority opinion holding that a nativity scene in a public Christmas display did not violate the First Amendment. She penned a concurrence in that case, opining that the crèche did not violate the Establishment Clause because it did not express an endorsement or disapproval of any religion. In Board of County Commissioners, Wabaunsee County, Kansas v Umbehr (1996) she upheld the application of first amendment free speech rights to independent contractors working for public bodies, being unpersuaded "that there is a 'difference of constitutional magnitude' ... between independent contractors and employees" in circumstances where a contractor has been critical of a governing body.[https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/94-1654.ZO.html Board of County Commissioners, Wabaun See County, Kansas, Petitioner v Keen A. Umbehr], 28 June 1996, accessed 18 February 2024

According to law professor Jeffrey Rosen, "O'Connor was an eloquent opponent of intrusive group searches that threatened privacy without increasing security. In a 1983 opinion upholding searches by drug-sniffing dogs, she recognized that a search is most likely to be considered constitutionally reasonable if it is very effective at discovering contraband without revealing innocent but embarrassing information."{{cite news |author-link=Jeffrey Rosen (legal academic) |last=Rosen |first=Jeffrey |date=November 28, 2010 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/26/AR2010112604290.html |title=The TSA is invasive, annoying – and unconstitutional |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=August 22, 2017 |archive-date=December 5, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101205063930/https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/26/AR2010112604290.html |url-status=live }} Washington College of Law professor Andrew Taslitz, referencing O'Connor's dissent in a 2001 case, said of her Fourth Amendment jurisprudence: "O'Connor recognizes that needless humiliation of an individual is an important factor in determining Fourth Amendment reasonableness."{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GOpW_DdlMSIC&q=o%27connor+%22fourth+amendment%22&pg=PA83 |page=83 |title=Reconstructing the Fourth Amendment: A History of Search and Seizure, 1789–1868 |isbn=978-0814783153 |last1=Taslitz |first1=Andrew E. |date=October 1, 2006 |publisher=NYU Press |location=New York City |access-date=November 20, 2020 |archive-date=November 8, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211108151021/https://books.google.com/books?id=GOpW_DdlMSIC&q=o%27connor+%22fourth+amendment%22&pg=PA83 |url-status=live }} O'Connor once quoted the social contract theory of John Locke as influencing her views on the reasonableness and constitutionality of government action.{{cite web |url=http://www.utahpatentattorneys.com/File/c2c851b5-8b2b-4dfb-b1b7-ff7ba1ead084 |title=Regula Pro Lege, Si Deficit Lex: The Latin Sapience of High Judges |access-date=November 17, 2016 |work=The Federal Bar Association |archive-date=November 19, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161119120343/http://www.utahpatentattorneys.com/File/c2c851b5-8b2b-4dfb-b1b7-ff7ba1ead084 |url-status=live }}

In McCleskey v. Kemp (1987), O'Connor joined a 5–4 majority that voted to uphold the death penalty for an African American man, Warren McCleskey, convicted of killing a white police officer, despite statistical evidence that Black defendants were more likely to receive the death penalty than others both in Georgia and in the U.S. as a whole.{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?path=/GovernmentPolitics/Government/LegalCases&id=h-2933 |title=McCleskey v. Kemp |encyclopedia=New Georgia Encyclopedia |access-date=November 8, 2021 |archive-date=May 14, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130514024725/http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?path=%2FGovernmentPolitics%2FGovernment%2FLegalCases&id=h-2933 |url-status=live }}David Baldus, et al., "In The Post-Furman Era: An Empirical And Legal Overview, With Recent Findings From Philadelphia", 83 Cornell Law Rev. 1638 (1998)

In the 1990 and 1995 Missouri v. Jenkins rulings, O'Connor voted with the majority that Federal district courts had no authority to require the state of Missouri to increase school funding to counteract racial inequality. In the 1991 case Freeman v. Pitts, O'Connor joined a concurring opinion in a plurality, agreeing that a school district that had formerly been under judicial review for racial segregation could be freed of this review, even though not all desegregation targets had been met. Law professor Herman Schwartz criticized these rulings, writing that in both cases "both the fact and effects of segregation were still present".

In 1996's Shaw v. Hunt and Shaw v. Reno, O'Connor joined a Rehnquist opinion, following an earlier precedent from an opinion she authored in 1993, in which the Court struck down an electoral districting plan designed to facilitate the election of two Black representatives out of 12 from North Carolina, a state that had not had any Black representative since Reconstruction, despite being approximately 20% Black{{snd}}the Court held that the districts were unacceptably gerrymandered and O'Connor called the odd shape of the district in question, North Carolina's 12th, "bizarre".{{Cite web |title=Shaw v. Reno, 509 U.S. 630 (1993) |url=https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/509/630/ |access-date=December 1, 2023 |website=Justia Law |language=en |archive-date=December 1, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231201040827/https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/509/630/ |url-status=live }}

Law professor Herman Schwartz called O'Connor "the Court's leader in its assault on racially oriented affirmative action", although she joined with the Court in upholding the constitutionality of limited race-based admissions to universities.

In 2003, O'Connor authored a majority Supreme Court opinion (Grutter v. Bollinger) saying racial affirmative action should not be constitutional permanently, but long enough to correct past discrimination{{snd}}with an approximate limit of around 25 years.{{citation |url=http://www.hlrecord.org/2.4463/justice-o-connor-affirmative-action-should-continue-1.577502 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120118081933/http://www.hlrecord.org/2.4463/justice-o-connor-affirmative-action-should-continue-1.577502 |archive-date=January 18, 2012 |title=Justice O'Connor: affirmative action should continue |access-date=March 9, 2012 }}

The Christian right element in the Reagan coalition strongly supported him in 1980, in the belief that he would appoint Supreme Court justices to overturn Roe v. Wade. They were astonished and dismayed when his first appointment was O'Connor, who they feared would tolerate abortion. They worked hard to defeat her confirmation but failed.{{cite journal|first=Prudence|last=Flowers|title='A Prolife Disaster': The Reagan Administration and the Nomination of Sandra Day O'Connor|journal=Journal of Contemporary History|publisher=SAGE Journals|location=Thousand Oaks, California|volume=53|issue=2|date=January 2019|pages=391–414|doi=10.1177/0022009417699865 |s2cid=159917418 }} In her confirmation hearings and early days on the Court, O'Connor was carefully ambiguous on the issue of abortion, as some conservatives questioned her anti-abortion credentials based on some of her votes in the Arizona legislature. O'Connor generally dissented from 1980s opinions which took an expansive view of Roe v. Wade; she criticized that decision's "trimester approach" sharply in her dissent in City of Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health (1983). She criticized Roe in Thornburgh v. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (1986): "I dispute not only the wisdom but also the legitimacy of the Court's attempt to discredit and pre-empt state abortion regulation regardless of the interests it serves and the impact it has." In 1989, O'Connor stated during the deliberations over the Webster case that she would not overrule Roe.{{harvp|Greenburg|2007|p=80}} While on the Court, O'Connor did not vote to strike down any restrictions on abortion until Hodgson v. Minnesota in 1990.{{cite book | first = Linda | last = Greenhouse | author-link = Linda Greenhouse | title = Becoming Justice Blackmun | publisher = Times Books | location=New York City |year = 2006 | isbn = 0805080570 | pages = 196–197}}

O'Connor allowed certain limits to be placed on access to abortion, but supported the right to abortion established by Roe. In the landmark ruling Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), O'Connor used a test she had originally developed in City of Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health to limit the holding of Roe v. Wade, opening up a legislative portal where a State could enact measures so long as they did not place an "undue burden" on a woman's right to an abortion. Casey revised downward the standard of scrutiny federal courts would apply to state abortion restrictions, a major departure from Roe. However, it preserved Roe's core constitutional precept: that the Fourteenth Amendment implies and protects a woman's fundamental right to control the outcomes of her reproductive actions. Writing the plurality opinion for the Court, O'Connor, along with Kennedy and Souter, famously declared: "At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life. Beliefs about these matters could not define the attributes of personhood were they formed under compulsion of the State."Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833, 851 (1992).

O'Connor's case-by-case approach routinely placed her in the center of the Court and drew both criticism and praise. Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer, for example, described her as lacking a judicial philosophy and instead displaying "political positioning embedded in a social agenda."{{Cite news |title=Philosophy for a Judge |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/07/AR2005070701898.html |newspaper=The Washington Post |first=Charles |last=Krauthammer |authorlink=Charles Krauthammer |access-date=November 18, 2005 |date=July 8, 2005 |archive-date=October 26, 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051026043126/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/07/AR2005070701898.html |url-status=live }} Conservative commentator Ramesh Ponnuru wrote that, even though O'Connor "has voted reasonably well", her tendency to issue very case-specific rulings "undermines the predictability of the law and aggrandizes the judicial role."{{Cite news|title=Sandra's Day|url=http://www.nationalreview.com/flashback/ponnuru200507011211.asp|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050911141328/http://www.nationalreview.com/flashback/ponnuru200507011211.asp|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 11, 2005|access-date=March 18, 2007|first=Ramesh|last=Ponnuru|authorlink=Ramesh Ponnuru|work=National Review|date=June 30, 2003}}

Law clerks serving the Court in 2000 speculated that the decision she reached in Bush v. Gore was based on a desire to appear fair, rather than on any legal rationale, pointing to a memo she sent out the night before the decision was issued that used entirely different logic to reach the same result. They also characterized her approach to cases as deciding on "gut feelings".

{{external media| float = right| video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?176071-1/the-majesty-law Interview with O'Connor on The Majesty of the Law, April 9, 2003], C-SPAN| video2 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?189030-1/chico Presentation by O'Connor on Chico, September 18, 2005], C-SPAN}}

In 2003, she wrote a book titled The Majesty of the Law: Reflections of a Supreme Court Justice ({{ISBN|0-375-50925-9}}).{{cite web |title=The Majesty of the Law |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/the-majesty-of-the-law |publisher=PBS |date=June 9, 2003 |access-date=March 15, 2020 |archive-date=August 20, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200820134044/https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/the-majesty-of-the-law |url-status=live }} In 2005, she wrote a children's book, Chico: A True Story from the Childhood of the First Woman Supreme Court Justice, named for her favorite horse, which offered an autobiographical depiction of her childhood.{{Cite web|url=https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=1076621&page=1|title=Sandra Day O'Connor Writes Children's Book|last=ABC News|date=June 1, 2006|website=ABC News|language=en|access-date=May 11, 2018|archive-date=May 12, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180512112506/https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=1076621&page=1|url-status=live}}

On December 12, 2000, The Wall Street Journal reported that O'Connor was reluctant to retire with a Democrat in the presidency: "At an Election Night party at the Washington, D.C., home of Mary Ann Stoessel, widow of former Ambassador Walter Stoessel, the justice's husband, John O'Connor, mentioned to others her desire to step down, according to three witnesses. But Mr. O'Connor said his wife would be reluctant to retire if a Democrat were in the White House and would choose her replacement. Justice O'Connor declined to comment."{{Cite news|title=Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics: "Conflicts of interest in Bush v. Gore: Did some justices vote illegally?" |url=http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3975/is_200304/ai_n9221306|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060615061559/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3975/is_200304/ai_n9221306|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 15, 2006|access-date=November 18, 2005 | work=The Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics | year=2003}}

File:SandraOconnor and GeorgeWBush May2004.jpg in May 2004]]

File:oconnor070105 0001.jpg

By 2005, the composition of the Court had been unchanged for eleven years, the second-longest period in American history without any such change. Rehnquist was widely expected to be the first justice to retire during Bush's term, owing to his age and his battle with cancer, although rumors of O'Connor's possible retirement circulated as well.{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/01/AR2005070100653.html|title=Supreme Court Justice O'Connor Resigns|last1=Deane|first1=Daniela|date=July 1, 2005|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=October 27, 2017|last2=Branigin|first2=William|language=en-US|issn=0190-8286|last3=Barbash|first3=Fred|archive-date=December 19, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171219044223/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/01/AR2005070100653.html|url-status=live}}

On July 1, 2005, O'Connor announced her intention to retire. In her letter to Bush, she stated that her retirement from active service would take effect upon the confirmation of her successor. Her letter did not provide a reason for her departure; however, a Supreme Court spokeswoman confirmed O'Connor was leaving to spend time with her husband.

On July 19, Bush nominated D.C. Circuit Judge John Roberts to succeed O'Connor. O'Connor heard the news over the car radio on the way back from a fishing trip.{{Cite journal|last=Landers|first=Rich|date=October 2005|title=Guiding Sandra Day O'Connor|journal=Field & Stream|volume=CX|page=21|via=ProQuest}} She described Roberts soon after the nomination as "good in every way, except he's not a woman".{{cite news |last1=Bumiller |first1=Elisabeth |title=Court in Transition: The President; An Interview By, Not With, The President |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/21/us/front |access-date=December 2, 2023 |work=The New York Times |date=July 21, 2005 |archive-date=December 7, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207112805/https://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/21/us/front%20page/court-in-transition-the-president-an-interview-by-not-with.html?searchResultPosition=10 |url-status=live }}

O'Connor had expected to leave the Court before the next term started on October 3, 2005.{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/jul/01/usa|title=First woman to serve as US supreme court justice retires|agency=Associated Press|date=July 1, 2005|work=The Guardian|access-date=October 27, 2017|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077|archive-date=October 28, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171028150207/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/jul/01/usa|url-status=live}} However, Rehnquist died on September 3,{{Cite news|url=http://www.denverpost.com/2005/09/03/chief-justice-rehnquist-dies-of-thyroid-cancer/|title=Chief Justice Rehnquist dies of thyroid cancer|date=September 3, 2005|work=The Denver Post|access-date=October 27, 2017|language=en-US|archive-date=October 28, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171028094827/http://www.denverpost.com/2005/09/03/chief-justice-rehnquist-dies-of-thyroid-cancer/|url-status=live}} creating an immediate vacancy on the Court.{{Cite news|url=http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/THE-SUPREME-COURT-IN-TRANSITION-The-death-of-2571270.php|title=The Supreme Court in Transition: The death of William Rehnquist / Chief justice's passing provides Bush with major opportunity|last=Sandalow|first=Marc|date=September 5, 2005|work=San Francisco Chronicle|access-date=October 27, 2017|archive-date=October 28, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171028094230/http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/THE-SUPREME-COURT-IN-TRANSITION-The-death-of-2571270.php|url-status=live}} Two days later, Bush withdrew Roberts as his nominee for her seat and instead appointed him to fill the vacant office of Chief Justice.{{Cite web|url=http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/09/05/roberts.nomination/|title=Bush nominates Roberts as chief justice|date=September 6, 2005|publisher=CNN|language=en|access-date=October 28, 2017|archive-date=February 4, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170204191709/http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/09/05/roberts.nomination/|url-status=live}} O'Connor agreed to stay on the Court until her replacement was named and confirmed. She spoke at the late chief justice's funeral.{{Cite news|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rehnquist-given-final-farewell/|title=Rehnquist Given Final Farewell|last=Alfano|first=Sean|date=September 7, 2005|access-date=October 27, 2017|language=en|archive-date=October 28, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171028094100/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rehnquist-given-final-farewell/|url-status=live}} On October 3, Bush nominated White House Counsel Harriet Miers to replace O'Connor.{{Cite web|url=http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/10/03/scotus.miers/|title=Bush picks White House counsel for Supreme Court|date=October 4, 2005|publisher=CNN|language=en|access-date=October 28, 2017|archive-date=October 29, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171029013017/http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/10/03/scotus.miers/|url-status=live}} After much criticism and controversy over her nomination, on October 27, Miers asked Bush to withdraw her nomination.{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/27/AR2005102700547.html|title=Miers, Under Fire From Right, Withdrawn as Court Nominee|newspaper=The Washington Post|last1=Babington|first1=Charles|date=October 28, 2005|access-date=October 28, 2017|last2=Fletcher|first2=Michael A.|language=en-US|issn=0190-8286|archive-date=November 7, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107040439/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/27/AR2005102700547.html|url-status=live}} Bush accepted, reopening the search for O'Connor's successor.

The continued delays in confirming a successor further extended O'Connor's time on the Court.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna9842789|title=O'Connor to remain crucial vote in major cases|agency=Associated Press|date=October 27, 2005|publisher=MSNBC|access-date=October 27, 2017|language=en|archive-date=October 28, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171028093713/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/9842789/ns/us_news-the_changing_court/t/oconnor-remain-crucial-vote-major-cases/#.WfPrgWhSzIU|url-status=live}} She continued to hear oral argument on cases, including cases dealing with controversial issues such as physician-assisted suicide and abortion. O'Connor's last Court opinion, Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of New England, written for a unanimous court, was a procedural decision that involved a challenge to a New Hampshire abortion law.{{Cite journal|year=2006|title=The Supreme Court 2005 Term – Leading Cases|url=https://harvardlawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/ayotte_v_planned_parenthood.pdf|journal=Harvard Law Review|publisher=Harvard Law School|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|volume=120|page=295|access-date=October 28, 2017|archive-date=October 14, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171014183126/https://harvardlawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/ayotte_v_planned_parenthood.pdf|url-status=live}}

On October 31, Bush nominated Third Circuit Judge Samuel Alito to replace O'Connor;{{Cite web|url=http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/10/31/scotus.bush/index.html|title=Bush nominates Alito to Supreme Court|date=November 1, 2005|publisher=CNN|language=en|access-date=October 28, 2017|archive-date=October 28, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171028094613/http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/10/31/scotus.bush/index.html|url-status=live}} Alito was confirmed by a 58–42 vote and was sworn in on January 31, 2006.{{Cite web|title=U.S. Senate: U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 109th Congress – 2nd Session|url=https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=2&vote=00002|access-date=February 11, 2021|website=senate.gov|archive-date=August 29, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080829201552/https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=2&vote=00002|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/01/31/alito/|title=Alito sworn in as nation's 110th Supreme Court justice|date=February 1, 2006|publisher=CNN|language=en|access-date=October 27, 2017|archive-date=February 3, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170203040334/http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/01/31/alito/|url-status=live}} After retiring, she continued to hear cases and rendered over a dozen opinions in federal appellate courts across the country, filling in as a substitute judge when vacations or vacancies left their three-member panels understaffed.{{Cite news|title=Change of Venue: In Retirement, Justice O'Connor Still Rules|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB124994271588320565#mod=todays_us_page_one|first=Jess|last=Bravin|work=The Wall Street Journal|date=August 11, 2009|access-date=August 8, 2017|archive-date=October 28, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171028093841/https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB124994271588320565#mod=todays_us_page_one|url-status=live}} On Alito's nomination, O'Connor said, "I've often said, it's wonderful to be the first to do something but I didn't want to be the last. If I didn't do a good job, it might've been the last and indeed when I retired, I was not replaced, then, by a woman which gives one pause to think 'Oh, what did I do wrong that led to this.{{'"}}{{Citation|title=Excerpts from C-SPAN's Interviews with Supreme Court Justices| date=September 3, 2009 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUfl9-cwJt4&list=TLPQMjcwMTIwMjJTgpgUK9DfGg&index=61|language=en|access-date=January 27, 2022|archive-date=January 27, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220127221831/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUfl9-cwJt4&list=TLPQMjcwMTIwMjJTgpgUK9DfGg&index=61|url-status=live}}

File:O'Connor and Kagan.jpg dean Elena Kagan. Kagan later became the fourth female justice on the Court.]]

In her retirement, O'Connor continued to speak and organize conferences on the issue of judicial independence. During a March 2006 speech at Georgetown University, O'Connor said some political attacks on the independence of the courts pose a direct threat to the constitutional freedoms of Americans. She said, "Any reform of the system is debatable as long as it is not motivated by retaliation for decisions that political leaders disagree with." She also noting that she was "against judicial reforms driven by nakedly partisan reasoning".{{Cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5255712|title=O'Connor Decries Republican Attacks on Courts|website=NPR.org|access-date=April 4, 2018|archive-date=September 12, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170912235700/http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5255712|url-status=live}} "Courts interpret the law as it was written, not as the congressmen might have wished it was written", and "it takes a lot of degeneration before a country falls into dictatorship, but we should avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings."

On November 19, 2008, O'Connor published an introductory essay on a themed judicial accountability issue in the Denver University Law Review. She called for a better public understanding of judicial accountability.{{cite journal|url = https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/denlr86&div=4|title = Judicial Accountability Must Safeguard, Not Threaten, Judicial Independence: An Introduction|journal = Denver University Law Review|publisher=Denver University|location = Denver, Colorado|volume = 86|pages = 1|last1 = O'Connor|first1 = Sandra Day|access-date = November 8, 2021|archive-date = August 6, 2020|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200806230459/https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals%2Fdenlr86&div=4|url-status = live}} On November 7, 2007, at a conference on her landmark opinion in Strickland v. Washington (1984) sponsored by the Constitution Project, O'Connor highlighted the lack of proper legal representation for many of the poorest defendants.{{cite news|url=https://www.usnews.com/articles/news/national/2007/11/07/justice-oconnors-wish-a-wand-not-a-gavel.html|title=Justice O'Connor's Wish: a Wand, not a Gavel|newspaper=U.S. News & World Report|date=November 7, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081101105524/http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/national/2007/11/07/justice-oconnors-wish-a-wand-not-a-gavel.html/ |archive-date=November 1, 2008}} O'Connor also urged the creation of a system for "merit selection for judges", a cause for which she had frequently advocated.{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/oconnor-and-her-clerk|title=O'Connor and Her Clerk|last=Toobin|first=Jeffrey|authorlink=Jeffrey Toobin|date=June 11, 2012|magazine=The New Yorker|access-date=May 10, 2018|language=en|issn=0028-792X|archive-date=May 11, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180511083055/https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/oconnor-and-her-clerk|url-status=live}}

On August 7, 2008, O'Connor and Abdurrahman Wahid, former President of Indonesia, wrote an editorial in the Financial Times stating concerns about the threatened imprisonment of Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.{{cite news|first1=Sandra Day|last1=O'Connor|first2=Abdurrahman|last2=Wahid|authorlink2=Abdurrahman Wahid|url=http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1a03116e-6484-11dd-af61-0000779fd18c.html|title=To defend Anwar is to defend Malaysian democracy|newspaper=Financial Times|date=August 7, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080813081442/http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1a03116e-6484-11dd-af61-0000779fd18c.html |archive-date=August 13, 2008 }}

In October 2008, O'Connor spoke on racial equality in education at a conference hosted by the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School. Later in the conference, she was awarded the Charles Hamilton Houston Justice Award alongside Desmond Tutu and Dolores Huerta.{{cite web|first=Emily|last=Dupraz|title=Affirmative action is still necessary, says O'Connor in HLS keynote address|url=https://hls.harvard.edu/today/affirmative-action-is-still-necessary-says-oconnor-in-hls-keynote-address/|date=October 27, 2008|website=Harvard Law School|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|access-date=August 25, 2022|archive-date=August 25, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220825173413/https://hls.harvard.edu/today/affirmative-action-is-still-necessary-says-oconnor-in-hls-keynote-address/|url-status=live}}

Following the Court's Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision on corporate political spending, O'Connor offered measured criticism of the decision, telling Georgetown law students and lawyers, "that the Court has created an unwelcome new path for wealthy interests to exert influence on judicial elections."{{cite news |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/oconnor-citizens-united-ruling-problem/story?id=9668044 |title=O'Connor Calls Citizens United Ruling A Problem |first=Matthew |last=Mosk |website=ABC News |date=January 26, 2010 |access-date=December 19, 2010 |archive-date=March 10, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110310155647/http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/oconnor-citizens-united-ruling-problem/story?id=9668044 |url-status=live }}

O'Connor argued in favor of President Barack Obama naming the replacement for Antonin Scalia in February 2016, mere days after Scalia's death, opposing Republican arguments that the next president should get to fill the vacancy. She said, "I think we need somebody there to do the job now and let's get on with it. ... You just have to pick the best person you can under the circumstances, as the appointing authority must do. It's an important position and one that we care about as a nation and as a people. And I wish the president well as he makes choices and goes down that line. It's hard."{{cite news |first=Cristian |last=Farias |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/sandra-day-oconnor-scalia_n_56c5313be4b0c3c55053c6d9 |title=Sandra Day O'Connor Says Obama Should Get To Replace Justice Scalia |work=HuffPost |date=February 17, 2016 |access-date=May 2, 2020 |archive-date=August 7, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200807192900/https://www.huffpost.com/entry/sandra-day-oconnor-scalia_n_56c5313be4b0c3c55053c6d9 |url-status=live }}

Judge William H. Pryor Jr., a conservative jurist, has criticized O'Connor's speeches and op-eds for hyperbole and factual inaccuracy, based in part on O'Connor's opinions as to whether judges face a rougher time in the public eye today than in the past.{{cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB115992646659882019|title=Neither Force Nor Will, But Merely Judgment|last=Pryor|first=William H. Jr.|date=October 4, 2006|work=The Wall Street Journal|access-date=August 8, 2017|archive-date=November 24, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171124201117/https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB115992646659882019|url-status=live}}{{cite web |url=http://media.www.hlrecord.org/media/storage/paper609/news/2007/03/15/News/Judge.Pryor.On.Judicial.Independence-2777228.shtml |title=Judge Pryor on Judicial Independence |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927021204/http://media.www.hlrecord.org/media/storage/paper609/news/2007/03/15/News/Judge.Pryor.On.Judicial.Independence-2777228.shtml |archive-date=September 27, 2007 |work=Harvard Law Record |date=March 15, 2007 }}

O'Connor reflected on her time on the Supreme Court by saying that she regretted the Court hearing the Bush v. Gore case in 2000 because it "stirred up the public" and "gave the Court a less-than-perfect reputation". She told the Chicago Tribune that "maybe the Court should have said, 'We're not going to take it, goodbye,' ... It turned out the election authorities in Florida hadn't done a real good job there and kind of messed it up. And probably the Supreme Court added to the problem at the end of the day".{{Cite news|first=Dahleen|last=Glanton|url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-sandra-day-oconnor-edit-board-20130427,0,1201477.story|title=O'Connor questions court's decision to take Bush v. Gore|date=April 27, 2013|work=Chicago Tribune|access-date=May 2, 2013|archive-date=May 4, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130504091947/http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-sandra-day-oconnor-edit-board-20130427,0,1201477.story|url-status=live}}Granite State Ins. Co. v. Am. Bldg. Materials, Inc., No. 12-10979, 11th Circuit, 2013

{{update|section|date=December 2023}}

As a retired Supreme Court justice, O'Connor continued to receive a full salary, maintained a staffed office with at least one law clerk, and heard cases on a part-time basis in federal district courts and courts of appeals as a visiting judge.{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/retired-supreme-court-justices-still-judge--and-get-judged/2013/03/10/1b22943c-897f-11e2-8d72-dc76641cb8d4_story.html|title=Retired Supreme Court justices still judge – and get judged|last=Barnes|first=Robert|date=March 10, 2013|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=May 10, 2018|language=en-US|issn=0190-8286|archive-date=May 11, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180511214608/https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/retired-supreme-court-justices-still-judge--and-get-judged/2013/03/10/1b22943c-897f-11e2-8d72-dc76641cb8d4_story.html|url-status=live}} By 2008, O'Connor had sat for cases with the 2nd, 8th, and 9th Circuits.{{Cite news|url=http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2006/10/oconnor-to-hear-second-circuit-cases.php|title=Paper Chase: O'Connor to hear Second Circuit cases|last=Mulcahy|first=Ned|date=October 7, 2006|work=Jurist|access-date=November 11, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061017170301/http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2006/10/oconnor-to-hear-second-circuit-cases.php|archive-date=October 17, 2006|url-status=dead}}{{Cite news|url=http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/a_cowgirl_rides_the_circuits|title=A Cowgirl Rides the Circuits|last=Brust|first=Richard|date=April 2008|work=ABA Journal|access-date=May 10, 2018|language=en|archive-date=May 11, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180511150203/http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/a_cowgirl_rides_the_circuits|url-status=live}} O'Connor heard an Arizona voting rights case which the Supreme Court later reviewed. In Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, a 7–2 majority affirmed O'Connor and the rest of 9th Circuit panel, and struck down a provision of Arizona's voting registration law.{{Cite news|url=https://www.cnn.com/2013/06/17/justice/scotus-voter-registration-ruling/index.html|title=Justices strike down citizenship provision in Arizona voter law |last=Mears|first=Bill|date=June 17, 2013|publisher=CNN|access-date=May 10, 2018|archive-date=May 11, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180511150344/https://www.cnn.com/2013/06/17/justice/scotus-voter-registration-ruling/index.html|url-status=live}} O'Connor hired a law clerk for the October 2015 term, but did not hire a law clerk for the subsequent term.{{Cite news|url=https://abovethelaw.com/2015/07/supreme-court-clerk-hiring-watch-who-is-not-retiring-from-scotus/|title=Supreme Court Clerk Hiring Watch: Who Is NOT Retiring From SCOTUS?|last=Lat|first=David|date=July 8, 2015|work=Above the Law|access-date=May 10, 2018|language=en-US|archive-date=November 8, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211108151024/https://abovethelaw.com/2015/07/supreme-court-clerk-hiring-watch-who-is-not-retiring-from-scotus/|url-status=live}}{{Cite news|url=https://abovethelaw.com/2016/07/supreme-court-clerk-hiring-watch-the-official-list-for-ot-2016/|title=Supreme Court Clerk Hiring Watch: The Official List|last=Lat|first=David|date=July 22, 2016|work=Above the Law|access-date=May 10, 2018|language=en-US|archive-date=November 8, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211108151035/https://abovethelaw.com/2016/07/supreme-court-clerk-hiring-watch-the-official-list-for-ot-2016/|url-status=live}}

File:O'Connor, Sotomayor, Ginsburg, and Kagan.jpg, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Elena Kagan, October 1, 2010. O'Connor was retired when the photograph was taken.]]

O'Connor was elected as an honorary fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration in 2005.{{Cite web |title=National Academy of Public Administration |url=https://napawash.org/fellow/15259 |access-date=April 21, 2023 |website=National Academy of Public Administration |language=en |archive-date=March 29, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230329114542/https://napawash.org/fellow/15259 |url-status=live }} In October that year, O'Connor accepted the largely ceremonial role of becoming the 23rd Chancellor of the College of William & Mary.{{cite web|title=The College of William and Mary announcement of O'Connor's appointment to Chancellor post|url=http://www.wm.edu/news/index.php?id=5234&readMore=true|access-date=November 18, 2005|archive-date=January 1, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060101123743/http://www.wm.edu/news/index.php?id=5234&readMore=true|url-status=live}} O'Connor continued in the role until 2012.{{cite web|last=Whitson|first=Brian|title=Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates '65 to Serve as W&M Chancellor|url=http://www.wm.edu/news/stories/2011/former-defense-secretary-robert-gates-65-to-serve-as-wm-chancellor-123.php|publisher=College of William & Mary|access-date=September 6, 2011|archive-date=September 26, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110926154257/http://www.wm.edu/news/stories/2011/former-defense-secretary-robert-gates-65-to-serve-as-wm-chancellor-123.php|url-status=live}} O'Connor was a member of the 2006 Iraq Study Group, appointed by the U.S. Congress.{{cite web|title=Iraq Study Group Members|url=http://www.usip.org/isg/members.html| access-date=November 10, 2006 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061108223545/http://www.usip.org/isg/members.html |archive-date = November 8, 2006}} From 2006, she was a trustee on the board of the Rockefeller Foundation.{{cite web |title=Sandra Day O'Connor |url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/justices/oconnor.bio.clr.html |website=cornell.edu |access-date=March 15, 2020 |archive-date=August 6, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806213022/https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/justices/oconnor.bio.clr.html |url-status=live}}{{cite news |title=O'Connor to Join Foundation Board |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/04/washington/oconnor-to-join-foundation-board.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=April 4, 2006 |access-date=March 15, 2020 |archive-date=November 21, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201121015854/https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/04/washington/oconnor-to-join-foundation-board.html |url-status=live}} O'Connor chaired the Jamestown 2007 celebration, commemorating the 400th anniversary of the founding of the colony at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}} The Sandra Day O'Connor Project on the State of the Judiciary, named for O'Connor, held annual conferences from 2006 through 2008 on the independence of the judiciary.{{Cite journal|last=Greenhouse|first=Linda|date=June 2008|title=Independence: why & from what?|url=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A189537182/GPS?sid=wikipedia|journal=Daedalus|volume=137|issue=4|pages=5–7|doi=10.1162/daed.2008.137.4.5|s2cid=57559095|via=Biography in Context|doi-access=free}} O'Connor was a member of both the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

In 2006, O'Connor taught a course on the Supreme Court at the University of Arizona's James E. Rogers College of Law as a distinguished jurist in residence.{{cite web |title=Sandra Day O'Connor to Teach at UA |url=https://uanews.arizona.edu/story/sandra-day-oconnor-teach-ua |website=uanews.arizona.edu |date=June 23, 2005 |publisher=The Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona |access-date=March 15, 2020 |archive-date=November 8, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211108151023/https://news.arizona.edu/story/sandra-day-oconnor-teach-ua |url-status=live }} On April 5, 2006, Arizona State University named its law school the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law in her honor.{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/arizona-republic-asu-welcomes-oconnor-w/136103807/ |title=ASU welcomes O'Connor with renaming of law college |date=April 6, 2006 |newspaper=The Tempe Republic |page=10 |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=December 1, 2023 |archive-date=December 7, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207112832/https://www.newspapers.com/article/arizona-republic-asu-welcomes-oconnor-w/136103807/ |url-status=live }}{{Open access}}

{{external media| float = right| video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?311561-1/out-order Presentation by O'Connor on Out of Order, March 18, 2013], C-SPAN| video2 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?321139-16/interview-sandra-day-oconnor Interview with O'Connor on Out of Order, August 30, 2014], C-SPAN}}

O'Connor wrote the 2013 book Out of Order: Stories from the History of the Supreme Court.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/05/books/sandra-day-oconnors-out-of-order.html|title=Bumpy Start for a Court Cloaked in Grandeur|date=March 4, 2013|work=The New York Times|access-date=March 4, 2013|archive-date=March 7, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130307111126/http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/05/books/sandra-day-oconnors-out-of-order.html|url-status=live}}

On May 15, 2006, O'Connor gave the commencement address at the William & Mary School of Law, where she said that judicial independence is "under serious attack at both the state and national level".{{Cite news|url=http://www.wm.edu/law/cnews/show_news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1147725549&archive=&start_from=&ucat=3&|title=Maintain Judicial Independence O'Connor Tells Law Graduates|author=Whitson, Brian|access-date=September 19, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060908210008/http://www.wm.edu/law/cnews/show_news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1147725549&archive=&start_from=&ucat=3&|archive-date=September 8, 2006|url-status=dead}} In 2008, O'Connor was named an inaugural Harry Rathbun Visiting Fellow by the Office for Religious Life at Stanford University. On April 22, 2008, she gave "Harry's Last Lecture on a Meaningful Life" in honor of the former Stanford Law professor who shaped her undergraduate and law careers.{{Cite web|url=http://www.stanford.edu/group/religiouslife/eventsRathbun.html|title=Office for Religious Life at Stanford University|access-date=April 23, 2008|archive-date=July 26, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080726214456/http://www.stanford.edu/group/religiouslife/eventsRathbun.html|url-status=live}} On September 17, 2014, O'Connor appeared on the television show Jeopardy! and provided a couple of video answers to the category 'Supreme Court' which appeared on the show. On the same day in Concord, New Hampshire, she gave a talk alongside her former colleague Justice David Souter about the importance of meaningful civics education in the United States.{{cite web|url=http://www.constitutionallyspeakingnh.org|title=Constitutionally Speaking New Hampshire|publisher=Constitutionallyspeakingnh.org|access-date=November 2, 2015|archive-date=November 7, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151107005138/http://www.constitutionallyspeakingnh.org/|url-status=live}}

In February 2009, O'Connor launched Our Courts, a website she created to offer interactive civics lessons to students and teachers because she was concerned about the lack of knowledge among most young Americans about how their government works. She also served as a co-chair with Lee H. Hamilton for the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools.{{cite web|url=http://www.civicmissionofschools.org/the-campaign/campaign-steering-committee|title=Campaign Steering Committee|publisher=Civicmissionofschools.org|access-date=November 2, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151024064553/http://www.civicmissionofschools.org/the-campaign/campaign-steering-committee|archive-date=October 24, 2015|url-status=dead}} On March 3, 2009, O'Connor appeared on the satirical television program The Daily Show with Jon Stewart to promote the website. In August 2009, the website added two online interactive games.{{Cite news|url=http://www.edweek.org/login.html?source=http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/08/20/01civics.h29.html&destination=http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/08/20/01civics.h29.html&levelId=2100|title=Celebrities Lend Weight to Promote Civics Education|author=Zehr, Mary Ann|date=August 25, 2009|work=Education Week|access-date=September 1, 2009|archive-date=August 28, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090828095344/http://www.edweek.org/login.html?source=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.edweek.org%2Few%2Farticles%2F2009%2F08%2F20%2F01civics.h29.html&destination=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.edweek.org%2Few%2Farticles%2F2009%2F08%2F20%2F01civics.h29.html&levelId=2100|url-status=live}} The initiative expanded, becoming iCivics in May 2010 offering free lesson plans, games, and interactive videogames for middle and high school educators.{{cite web|url=http://www.icivics.org/About|title=iCivics (formerly Our Courts) homepage|access-date=December 19, 2010|archive-date=October 1, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101001211256/http://www.icivics.org/About|url-status=live}} By 2015, the iCivics games had 72,000 teachers as registered users and its games had been played 30 million times.{{Cite web|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/04/14/oconnor-civics-games-legacy/25505871/|title=Sandra Day O'Connor's post-court legacy: Civics games|last=Toppo|first=Greg|date=April 14, 2015|website=USA Today|language=en|access-date=September 3, 2019|archive-date=September 3, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190903020308/https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/04/14/oconnor-civics-games-legacy/25505871/|url-status=live}}

O'Connor served on the board of trustees of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, a museum dedicated to the U.S. Constitution.{{cite web|url=http://www.constitutioncenter.org/ncc_about_Board_of_Trustees.aspx|title=National Constitution Center, Board of Trustees|date=July 26, 2010|work=National Constitution Center Web Site|publisher=National Constitution Center|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100615033447/http://constitutioncenter.org/ncc_about_Board_of_Trustees.aspx|archive-date=June 15, 2010|url-status=dead|access-date=July 27, 2010}}{{Cite web|url=http://constitutioncenter.org:80/about/board-of-trustees|title=Board of Trustees – National Constitution Center|website=constitutioncenter.org|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151024091512/http://constitutioncenter.org/about/board-of-trustees|archive-date=October 24, 2015|url-status=dead|access-date=May 16, 2018}} By November 2015, O'Connor had transitioned to being a trustee emeritus for the center.{{Cite web|url=http://constitutioncenter.org:80/about/board-of-trustees/|title=Board of Trustees – National Constitution Center|website=constitutioncenter.org|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151107064352/http://constitutioncenter.org/about/board-of-trustees/|archive-date=November 7, 2015|url-status=dead|access-date=May 16, 2018}} In April 2013, the board of directors of Justice at Stake, a national judicial reform advocacy organization, announced that O'Connor would be joining the organization as honorary chair.{{cite web|url=http://www.justiceatstake.org/newsroom/press-releases-16824/?supreme_court_justice_sandra_day_oconnor_joins_justice_at_stake_as_honorary_chair&show=news&newsID=16396|title=Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor Joins Justice at Stake as Honorary Chair|date=April 15, 2013|publisher=Justiceatstake.org|access-date=November 2, 2015|archive-date=March 4, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304224728/http://www.justiceatstake.org/newsroom/press-releases-16824/?supreme_court_justice_sandra_day_oconnor_joins_justice_at_stake_as_honorary_chair&show=news&newsID=16396|url-status=live}}

In 2009, O'Connor founded the 501(c)(3) non-profit organization now known as the Sandra Day O'Connor Institute. Its programs are dedicated to promoting civil discourse, civic engagement, and civics education.{{Cite web|url=http://arizonanonprofits.org/members/?id=42354572|title=Sandra Day O'Connor Institute – Alliance of Arizona Nonprofits|website=arizonanonprofits.org|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180510184142/http://arizonanonprofits.org/members/?id%3D42354572|archive-date=May 10, 2018|url-status=dead|access-date=May 10, 2018}}{{Cite web|url=https://oconnorinstitute.org/about/civic-duty-mission/|title=A Mission of Civic Duty and Knowledge – The O'Connor Institute|website=Sandra Day O'Connor Institute|access-date=February 17, 2020|archive-date=February 17, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200217235450/https://oconnorinstitute.org/about/civic-duty-mission/|url-status=live}} In 2019, her former adobe residence in Arizona, curated by the O'Connor Institute, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.{{Cite web|last=O'Sullivan|first=Serena|title=Sandra Day O'Connor's house in Tempe added to the National Register of Historic Places|url=https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/tempe/2019/07/19/sandra-day-oconnors-house-added-in-tempe-national-register-historic-places/1779271001/|access-date=July 9, 2020|website=The Arizona Republic|language=en-US|archive-date=November 8, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211108151023/https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/tempe/2019/07/19/sandra-day-oconnors-house-added-in-tempe-national-register-historic-places/1779271001/|url-status=live}} In 2022, the Institute launched Civics for Life, its multigenerational digital platform.{{Cite web|title=O'Connor U launched by Sandra Day O'Connor Institute|url=https://www.yourvalley.net/stories/sandra-day-oconnor-institute-launches-oconnor-u,161280|access-date=July 9, 2020|website=Your Valley|date=May 27, 2020 |language=en|archive-date=June 19, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200619132418/https://www.yourvalley.net/stories/sandra-day-oconnor-institute-launches-oconnor-u,161280|url-status=live}}

O'Connor was a member and president of the Junior League of Phoenix.{{cite web|title=Sandra Day O'Connor, The Junior League of Phoenix|url=https://www.ajli.org/?nd=p-do-civldr-bio-sandra-day-oconnor|website=ajli.org|access-date=October 24, 2018|archive-date=October 24, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181024232503/https://www.ajli.org/?nd=p-do-civldr-bio-sandra-day-oconnor|url-status=live}}

O'Connor was a founding co-chair of the National Advisory Board at the National Institute for Civil Discourse (NICD).{{Cite web|url=https://nicd.arizona.edu/members/sandra-day-oconnor|title=Sandra Day O'Connor|date=January 23, 2012|website=National Institute for Civil Discourse|language=en|access-date=September 3, 2019|archive-date=September 3, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190903020319/https://nicd.arizona.edu/members/sandra-day-oconnor|url-status=live}} The institute was created at the University of Arizona after the 2011 shooting of former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords that killed six people and wounded 13 others.{{Cite web|url=https://nicd.arizona.edu/about|title=About|date=July 5, 2015|website=National Institute for Civil Discourse|language=en|access-date=September 3, 2019|archive-date=September 3, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190903020323/https://nicd.arizona.edu/about|url-status=live}}

Upon her appointment to the Supreme Court, O'Connor and her husband moved to the Kalorama area of Washington, D.C. The O'Connors became active in the Washington, D.C. social scene. O'Connor played tennis and golf in her spare time. She was a baptized member of the Episcopal Church.{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2016/03/29/how-sandra-day-oconnor-became-the-most-powerful-woman-in-1980s-america/|title=How Sandra Day O'Connor became the most powerful woman in 1980s America|newspaper=The Washington Post|language=en|access-date=October 6, 2018|archive-date=March 30, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160330063935/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2016/03/29/how-sandra-day-oconnor-became-the-most-powerful-woman-in-1980s-america/|url-status=live}}

O'Connor was successfully treated for breast cancer in 1988, and she also had her appendix removed that year."O'Connor Has Breast Surgery To Stop Cancer", The New York Times, Linda Greenhouse. October 22, 1988. That same year, John O'Connor left the Washington, D.C., law firm of Miller & Chevalier for a practice that required him to split his time between Washington, D.C. and Phoenix.

Her husband suffered from Alzheimer's disease for nearly 20 years, until his death in 2009, and she became involved in raising awareness of the disease. After retiring from the Court, O'Connor moved back to Phoenix, Arizona.

Around 2013, O'Connor's friends and colleagues noticed that she was becoming more forgetful and less talkative.{{Rp|399–400}} By 2017, back problems led to her needing to use a wheelchair, and to her moving to an assisted living facility.{{Rp|401}} In October 2018, O'Connor announced her effective retirement from public life after disclosing that she had been diagnosed with the early stages of dementia.

On May 7, 2016, her younger sister, Ann Day, was killed in a car accident in Tucson, Arizona, as a result of a collision with a drunk driver.{{cite news|url=https://www.foxnews.com/politics/sister-of-former-supreme-court-justice-oconnor-killed-in-arizona-car-crash/|title=Sister of former Supreme Court Justice O'Connor killed in Arizona car crash|publisher=Fox News|date=May 8, 2016}}

On December 1, 2023, O'Connor died in Phoenix, at the age of 93, due to complications related to advanced dementia and a respiratory illness.{{cite web |date=December 1, 2023 |title=Sandra Day O'Connor, the first female Supreme Court justice, dead at 93 |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/sandra-day-oconnor-dead-dies-rcna127589 |access-date=December 1, 2023 |publisher=NBC News |archive-date=December 7, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207112805/https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/sandra-day-oconnor-dead-dies-rcna127589 |url-status=live }}{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/01/us/sandra-day-oconnor-dead.html |title=Sandra Day O'Connor, First Woman on the Supreme Court, Is Dead at 93 |last=Greenhouse |first=Linda |date=December 1, 2023 |access-date=December 1, 2023 |newspaper=The New York Times |url-access=limited |archive-date=December 1, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231201171539/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/01/us/sandra-day-oconnor-dead.html |url-status=live}}{{cite web |last=de Vogue |first=Ariane |title=Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, first woman on the Supreme Court, dies |url=https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/01/politics/justice-sandra-day-oconnor-first-woman-on-the-supreme-court-dies/index.html |publisher=CNN |date=December 2023 |access-date=December 1, 2023}} After her death, Chief Justice John Roberts called her "an eloquent advocate for civil education" and a "fiercely independent defender of the rule of law" in a public statement.{{cite web|last1=Olapido|first1=Gloria|last2=Pengelly|first2=Martin|date=December 1, 2023|title=Sandra Day O'Connor, first woman to serve on US Supreme Court, dies aged 93|website=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/01/sandra-day-o-connor-dead-first-woman-supreme-court-justice|access-date=December 1, 2023|archive-date=December 1, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231201185930/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/01/sandra-day-o-connor-dead-first-woman-supreme-court-justice|url-status=live}} President Joe Biden said she was an "American icon", dedicated to public service and the "bedrock American principle of an independent judiciary".{{Cite news |last=Alafriz |first=Olivia |date=2023-12-02 |title='American icon': Biden pays tribute to Sandra Day O'Connor |language=en |work=Politico |url=https://www.politico.com/news/2023/12/02/biden-sandra-day-oconnor-tribute-00129759 |access-date=2023-12-03 |archive-date=December 3, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231203144953/https://www.politico.com/news/2023/12/02/biden-sandra-day-oconnor-tribute-00129759 |url-status=live }} iCivics board chairman Larry Kramer said that O'Connor was "kind and generous" and relayed that iCivics was her "brainchild".

O'Connor lay in repose in the Great Hall of the Supreme Court on December 18, 2023.{{cite news |last1=Barnes |first1=Robert |title=Justice O'Connor to lie in repose at Supreme Court on Dec. 18 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/12/05/supreme-court-oconnor-repose/ |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=5 December 2023}} She was memorialized the following day in a funeral service held at the Washington National Cathedral.{{cite news |title=O'Connor, a Daughter of the American West, is honored in Washington |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/19/us/politics/sandra-day-oconnor-memorial.html |work=The New York Times |date=December 19, 2023 |access-date=19 December 2023 |last1=Vansickle |first1=Abbie }}

{{main|List of awards and honors received by Sandra Day O'Connor}}

O'Connor was particularly remembered for being the first woman on the Court, and for functioning as the swing vote in the 5–4 decision in Bush v. Gore, which handed the presidency to George W. Bush.{{cite news|last=Jackson|first=Harold|title=Sandra Day O'Connor obituary|url=https://www.theguardian.com/law/2023/dec/01/sandra-day-oconnor-obituary|work=The Guardian|access-date=December 3, 2023|archive-date=December 3, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231203111154/https://www.theguardian.com/law/2023/dec/01/sandra-day-oconnor-obituary|url-status=live}}{{cite news|last=Yousif|first=Nadine|title=Ex-Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor dies aged 93|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67593879|work=BBC News|access-date=December 3, 2023|archive-date=December 3, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231203111154/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67593879|url-status=live}}

Overall, she began her tenure on the court as a Reaganite but would later attempt to steer the court toward decisions that better aligned with public opinion.{{cite news|last1=Lithwick|first1=Dahlia| author-link2 = Mark Joseph Stern | last2 = Stern |first2=Mark Joseph|title=The Sad Ending of Sandra Day O'Connor's Judicial Legacy|url=https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/12/sandra-day-oconnor-obit-sad-legacy.html|work=Slate|access-date=December 3, 2023|archive-date=December 3, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231203104236/https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/12/sandra-day-oconnor-obit-sad-legacy.html|url-status=live}} Some argue that O'Connor's jurisprudential legacy was largely undone by the appointment of Samuel Alito as her successor.{{cite news|last=Liptak|first=Adam|title=Justice O'Connor's Judicial Legacy Was Undermined by Court's Rightward Shift|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/01/us/politics/justice-oconnor-legacy-abortion.html|work=The New York Times|date=December 2023 |access-date=December 3, 2023|archive-date=December 3, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231203104410/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/01/us/politics/justice-oconnor-legacy-abortion.html|url-status=live}}

In March 2019, historian and journalist Evan Thomas published a memoir detailing O' Connor's life, pulling from interviews and her archives, and becoming a New York Times Bestseller and finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/18/books/review/evan-thomas-first-sandra-day-oconnor.html

{{portal|Arizona|Biography|Law|Politics}}

{{colbegin}}

• List of justices of the Supreme Court of the United States
• List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 8)
• List of United States Supreme Court justices by time in office
• List of United States federal judges by longevity of service
• United States Supreme Court cases during the Burger Court
• United States Supreme Court cases during the Rehnquist Court
• United States Supreme Court cases during the Roberts Court
• List of female state supreme court justices

{{colend}}

{{notelist}}

{{Reflist}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite book |last=Greenburg |first=Jan Crawford |year=2007 |title=Supreme Conflict: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Control of the United States Supreme Court |publisher=Penguin Books}}

{{refend}}

{{external media| float = right| video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?189492-1/sandra-day-oconnor Presentation by Biskupic on Sandra Day O'Connor, October 23, 2005], C-SPAN| video2 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?459098-14/first-sandra-dayoconnor Interview with Thomas on First, April 6, 2019], C-SPAN}}

• {{cite report |date=September 1981 |title=Nomination of Judge Sandra Day O'Connor of Arizona to serve as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States |url=http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/GPO-CHRG-OCONNOR/pdf/GPO-CHRG-OCONNOR.pdf |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office}}
• Biskupic, Joan. Sandra Day O'Connor: How the First Woman on the Supreme Court Became Its Most Influential Justice (2005), biography
• Flowers, Prudence. {{"'}}A Prolife Disaster': The Reagan Administration and the Nomination of Sandra Day O'Connor". Journal of Contemporary History 53.2 (2018): 391–414. {{JSTOR|26416694}}.
• Montini, E. J. (2005). [https://www.azcentral.com/news/columns/articles/0712montini12.html?&wired "Rehnquist is No. 1, O'Connor is No. 3, Baloney is No. 2"]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160322211005/http://www.azcentral.com/news/columns/articles/0712montini12.html?&wired |date=March 22, 2016 }} The Arizona Republic. Retrieved March 5, 2013.
• {{Cite book|title=Lazy B: Growing Up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest|author1=O'Connor, Sandra Day|author2=Day, H. Alan|name-list-style=amp|year=2002|publisher=Random House|isbn=0-375-50724-8|url=https://archive.org/details/lazybgrowingupo000ocon}}, a primary source
• Thomas, Evan. First: Sandra Day O'Connor (2019) Random House, authorized biography

{{Sister project links|auto=yes}}

{{Library resources box|by=yes|onlinebooksby=yes|lcheading= O'Connor, Sandra Day, 1930–}}

• {{C-SPAN|1300}}
• [http://www.OnTheIssues.org/Sandra_Day_O_Connor.htm Issue positions and quotes] at OnTheIssues

{{s-start}}

{{s-par|us-az-sen}}

{{s-bef|before=Isabel Burgess}}

{{s-ttl|title=Member of the Arizona Senate
from the 8-E district|years=1969–1971}}

{{s-aft|after=Constituency abolished}}

{{s-break}}

{{s-bef|before=Constituency established}}

{{s-ttl|title=Member of the Arizona Senate
from the 20th district|years=1971–1973}}

{{s-aft|after=Bess Stinson}}

{{s-break}}

{{s-bef|before=Howard S. Baldwin}}

{{s-ttl|title=Member of the Arizona Senate
from the 24th district|years=1973–1975}}

{{s-aft|after=John Pritzlaff}}

{{s-break}}

{{s-legal}}

{{s-bef|before=Potter Stewart}}

{{s-ttl|title=Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States|years=1981–2006}}

{{s-aft|after=Samuel Alito}}

{{s-break}}

{{s-aca}}

{{s-bef|before=Henry Kissinger}}

{{s-ttl|title=Chancellor of the College of William and Mary|years=2005–2012}}

{{s-aft|after=Robert Gates}}

{{s-break}}

{{s-end}}

{{SCOTUS Justices}}

{{Sandra Day O'Connor opinions}}

{{ISG}}

{{College of William & Mary chancellors}}

{{National Women's Hall of Fame}}

{{Texas Women's Hall of Fame}}

{{Lain in State (USA)|state=collapsed}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oconnor, Sandra Day}}

*

Category:1930 births

Category:2023 deaths

Category:20th-century American lawyers

Category:20th-century members of the Arizona State Legislature

Category:20th-century American women lawyers

Category:20th-century American women politicians

Category:20th-century American women judges

Category:21st-century American judges

Category:21st-century American women writers

Category:21st-century American women judges

Category:American Episcopalians

Category:American prosecutors

Category:American women legal scholars

Category:American legal scholars

Category:Arizona lawyers

Category:Arizona state court judges

Category:Deaths from dementia in Arizona

Category:Republican Party Arizona state senators

Category:California lawyers

Category:California Republicans

Category:Chancellors of the College of William & Mary

Category:Constitutional court women judges

Category:Cowgirl Hall of Fame inductees

Category:Deaths from Alzheimer's disease in Arizona

Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Category:Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States

Category:Lawyers from Phoenix, Arizona

Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society

Category:Members of the Junior League

Category:People from Greenlee County, Arizona

Category:People from Kalorama (Washington, D.C.)

Category:Politicians from Phoenix, Arizona

Category:Politicians from El Paso, Texas

Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients

Category:Respiratory disease deaths in Arizona

Category:Rockefeller Foundation people

Category:Stanford Law School alumni

Category:Stanford University trustees

Category:United States federal judges appointed by Ronald Reagan

Category:Women state legislators in Arizona

Category:Writers from Phoenix, Arizona

Category:Writers from Texas

Category:Women's firsts