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"Some people found it maddening," Volokh said of O'Connor's middle road, which he suggested could have been informed by her background as a state legislator and judge in Arizona. Her tests for deciding constitutional violations on affirmative action and the establishment clause made her vote unpredictable. But she tended to side with the liberal wing of the court on due process matters, most notably forming a plurality opinion in 1992 upholding the right to abortion. She voted reliably with conservatives espousing "New Federalism," which limited the power of the federal government. He said she will be remembered for "her ability to steer a middle course" between liberal and conservative factions. Twelve years later, he said, "Many of the important opinions I teach are O'Connor opinions." It's not always positive.Sasha Volokh, Emory University School of Law (Courtesy photo) If you think you've been helpful, and then it's dismantled, you think, 'Oh, dear.' But life goes on. O'Connor's departure from the court and her replacement by Justice Samuel Alito moved the court to the right, and O'Connor wasn't always happy with the court's direction after she left.Īsked at a 2009 event how she felt about the court retreating from or undoing rulings she was instrumental in shaping, she responded: "What would you feel? I'd be a little bit disappointed. Scott O'Connor, one of the justice's three sons, told a Phoenix television station that his mother was "thrilled" her husband was "relaxed and happy." In 2007, O'Connor's family made public that John O'Connor had struck up a romance with a fellow Alzheimer's patient at the assisted living center where he had moved. Her decision to step down was influenced by a decline in the health of her husband, John O'Connor III, who himself had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.
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She was 75 when she announced her retirement from the court in 2005. O'Connor was 51 when she was confirmed 99-0 to the Supreme Court. Despite those early challenges, she became the first woman to lead the Arizona state senate before becoming a judge. Although she graduated third in her class from law school she had difficulty finding a job as a lawyer at a time when there were few women in the legal profession. O'Connor grew up on a ranch on the border of Arizona and New Mexico called the "Lazy B" and went to Stanford for college and law school. Gore decision effectively settling the 2000 election in George W. On the Supreme Court, her votes were key in cases about abortion, affirmative action and campaign finance as well as the Bush v. Jay O'Connor also said that hip issues have meant his mother now primarily uses a wheelchair and stays close to her home in Phoenix.ĭuring her more than two decades on the court O'Connor was often the deciding vote in important cases, providing the crucial fifth vote when the court divided 5-4.
The story noted that O'Connor had stopped making public appearances and recently turned over an office she had kept at the Supreme Court to newly retired Justice Anthony Kennedy. Supreme Court." Join the conversation at /dispatchpolitics and connect with us on Twitter announcement of her diagnosis came a day after an Associated Press story in which her son Jay O'Connor said that his mother had begun to have challenges with her short term memory. She added: "As a young cowgirl from the Arizona desert, I never could have imagined that one day I would become the first woman justice on the U.S. "While the final chapter of my life with dementia may be trying, nothing has diminished my gratitude and deep appreciation for the countless blessings in my life," she wrote. But she stopped speaking publicly more than two years ago. The 88-year-old said doctors diagnosed her some time ago and that as her condition has progressed she is "no longer able to participate in public life." After her 2006 retirement from the high court O'Connor had appeared around the country championing an educational organization she founded and serving as a visiting appeals court judge, among other activities. WASHINGTON (AP) - Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman on the Supreme Court, announced Tuesday in a frank and personal letter that she has been diagnosed with "the beginning stages of dementia, probably Alzheimer's disease."