A look back at local, national and world events through Deseret News archives.
On Sept. 25, 1981, Sandra Day O’Connor made history when she was installed as the first woman on the U.S. Supreme Court. O’Connor then spent a quarter of a century as the swing vote on the court.
Having already served in the three branches of state government in the West, O’Connor was ready for the position.
During his 1980 presidential campaign, Ronald Reagan made a commitment to appoint a woman to the Supreme Court of the United States. When Justice Potter Stewart retired in 1981, Reagan fulfilled that promise by nominating O’Connor, noting that she was a “person for all seasons.” The Senate unanimously confirmed her appointment on Sept. 21, 1981, and four days later, she took her seat on the bench.
According to historians, she did not like the label “swing vote,” O’Connor frequently found herself referred to as such in the media because her pragmatic approach to judging sometimes resulted in her vote being cast among the majority in 5-4 decisions. O’Connor authored 676 opinions in her career, 301 of which were the Opinion of the Court, touching on a wide range of issues.
“Being a member of the Court,” she once said, “is a little like walking through fresh concrete. We look back and see our footprints in those opinions that we’ve written and they tend to harden after us.”
After her retirement in 2006, she founded the Sandra Day O’Connor Institute in 2009, which seeks “to advance civil discourse, civic engagement and civics education,” according to the institute’s website.
O’Connor is highly regarded by many groups and was an influential speaker at many law schools, including BYU. She died in December 2023 at age 93.
Here are more stories from Deseret News archives about O’Connor:
“Sandra Day O’Connor, first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, dies at 93″
“Sandra Day O’Connor’s religious freedom legacy”
“Two U.S. Supreme Court Justices on how they ‘disagree better’”
“O’Connor becomes first woman ever to preside over court”