Lady Justice: Women of SCOTUS Series: Sandra Day O’Connor

The United States Supreme Court was established six years after the end of the American Revolutionary War in 1789. And in the 236 years that has followed, 116 justices have served on the highest Court in the land, but of those 116, only six have been women.

There are currently four female justices serving on the Supreme Court: Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Amy Coney Barrett, and Ketanji Brown Jackson. This is the highest number of female justices that have ever served on the Supreme Court. But in the words of the late legendary icon, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, when asked “when will there be enough [women on the Supreme Court]?” she responded, “when there are nine.” At the time, people were shocked by her response, but she continued to say, “but there’d been nine men, and nobody’s ever raised a question about that.” In fact, there were nine male justices serving on the Supreme Court for almost 100 years, from 1789 until the appointment of Sandra Day O’Connor in 1981.

O’Connor was appointed to the Court by President Ronald Reagan, in a Senate confirmation vote of 99-0, showcasing a unanimous consensus for the country’s readiness for a female Supreme Court Justice. O’Connor will always be known as the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States, but her legacy and impact is much larger than that. During her 25 years on the Court, O’Connor defied politics and did not vote along political line or party affiliation, and instead she became a crucial swing vote in many landmark cases, including many which concerned women’s rights and gender equality.

Sandra Day O'Connor

Shortly into her term, O’Connor authored the majority opinion in Mississippi University for Women v. Hogan (1982), a case involving gender discrimination in which a man sued for being denied admission to an all-female nursing school. The Court ruled that the school must admit qualified men, and O’Connor further reasoned that not allowing men into the school perpetuated the limiting stereotype that nursing was a women’s job. In 1992, O’Connor served as the swing vote yet again in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, a case that affirmed Roe v. Wade, saving reproductive rights despite a conservative push to overturn Roe at the time. O’Connor did not only move the needle on women’s rights and gender equality, as she was also a critical swing vote in Grutter v. Bollinger, a case concerning affirmative action in student admissions. In Grutter, the Court held that a student admissions process that favors “underrepresented minority groups” did not violate Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection.

Sandra Day O’Connor retired from the bench in 2006 to care for her husband who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Her tenure on the Supreme Court not only paved the way for future female justices but also reinforced the importance of independent judicial reasoning. O’Connor left behind a legacy of fairness, pragmatism, and progress. Her ability to rise above partisan divides and make decisions rooted in the Constitution exemplifies the qualities of a true justice. As the first woman to break the Supreme Court’s glass ceiling, her contributions continue to inspire generations of women pursuing careers in law and public service, proving that representation matters, and that one trailblazer can change the course of history. And thanks to her, we have four female justices on the court today.