Sandra Day O'Connor frequently filed concurring opinions that sought to narrow the scope of majority rulings. | AP Photo Senate confirms first female Supreme Court justice, Sept. 21, 1981

On this day in 1981, the Senate unanimously confirmed Sandra Day O'Connor as the nation’s first woman to serve as a U.S. Supreme Court justice. In anticipation of her arrival, the court abandoned its traditional use of “Mr. Justice” as its preferred form of address, opting for the gender-neutral “Justice.”

In nominating O’Connor, President Ronald Reagan made good on a campaign promise to choose a woman as a member of the high court. Early in her tenure, she was widely viewed as a member of the court’s conservative wing.


She was said to have taken her lead from Justice (later Chief Justice) William Rehnquist, a fellow Arizonan who had been O’Connor’s classmate at Stanford Law School. However, after a few terms, O'Connor established her own “swing” position on the court, eventually emerging as the court’s influential centrist coalition-builder.

Although she commonly sided with the conservatives, she often would rely on her political experience in the Arizona state Senate to help form her views. She frequently filed concurring opinions that sought to narrow the scope of majority rulings.

At a 1985 press dinner, Washington Redskins fullback John Riggins told O'Connor, “Come on, Sandy baby, loosen up. You're too tight,” then passed out drunk on the floor. The next day, the women with whom she shared an early morning exercise class presented her with a T-shirt that read: “Loosen up at the Supreme Court.”

Years later, when Riggins made his acting debut at a Washington theater, she gave him a dozen roses on opening night. O'Connor made her own brief foray into acting in 1996, appearing as Queen Isabel in a Shakespeare Theatre production of Henry V.

In 2000, O'Connor cast the deciding vote in Bush v. Gore. The ruling ended the recount of votes in Florida in the contested outcome of the presidential race. It cleared a path for George W. Bush to enter the White House. O'Connor later said that perhaps the court should not have weighed in, based on the circumstances of the contest.

With Rehnquist and Justice John Paul Stevens (who was senior to her) absent, O'Connor presided on Feb. 22, 2005, over oral arguments in the case of Kelo v. City of New London, becoming the first woman to preside over an oral argument before the tribunal.

On July 1, 2005, O'Connor, at age 75, announced plans to retire from the bench. Shortly thereafter, she became the 23rd chancellor of William and Mary College, in Williamsburg, Virginia, a largely ceremonial post first held by George Washington.

SOURCE: WWW.BIOGRAPHY.COM/PEOPLE/SANDRA-DAY-OCONNOR-9426834#US-SUPREME-COURT-JUSTICE

