The Supreme Court once stood as a monolithic institution of predominately all-white male composition. However, in 1981 it’s 104th justice, and first woman, Sandra Day O’Connor, broke through this glass ceiling. Justice O’Connor was notably unique in many nuanced ways, not least for her significant role during her years as the Court’s swing justice. Her votes and opinions in major cases frequently shaped the direction of the Court and its most well-known decisions.[1]
Justice O’Connor was a trailblazer in numerous respects. These groundbreaking aspects of her time in the Supreme Court are brilliantly captured in the Supreme Court Justices Database. Beyond being the first woman to serve, she possessed unique work experience in state government, and held the distinction of being one of only a few justices to have previously served as a state senator– a position not occupied by a justice since 1922. Alongside these significant unique attributes, her legacy also includes being one of the youngest justices to leave the Court and being the first whose confirmation hearing was televised.
Even beyond her distinct personal history, O’Connor also left a distinct mark through her judicial decisions and voting behaviour. She was often considered one of the most influential justices of the late-20th and early-21st centuries. Among her significant rulings, she was an author of the Court’s decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, setting a standard that stood as the foundation for constitutional questions concerning abortion from 1994 until 2022. Other significant rulings included Mississippi University for Women v. Hogan, where she wrote that an all-female public institution must open its doors to men under the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, and the 2003 case of Grutter v. Bollinger which set a standard for affirmative action. Lastly, she played a pivotal role in shaping the presidency at the start of the 21st Century by siding with George W. Bush in Bush v. Gore.
Beyond large shifts in jurisprudence, her votes often dictated the majority opinion in 5-4 decisions wherein she authored the second most majority opinions at 54, evidencing the influential power of her stance on many cases[2].
O’Connor’s profound impact on the Supreme Court has received increasing attention and is evidenced by her journey from being refused a job at every law firm to which she applied, to revolutionizing the Supreme Court as its first female justice[3]. In retrospect, it’s unequivocal that Justice O’Connor changed the Supreme Court for all future generations.