Former American judge Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States and considered one of the voices of moderation within the Court, died Friday at the age of 93. Chosen in 1981 by the Republican president at the time, Ronald Reagan, whose first appointment – for life – to the Supreme Court, she retired in 2006, notably to be able to help her husband John O’Connor, finally died in 2009, suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
“We mourn a beloved colleague”
Sandra Day O’Connor herself announced in 2018 that she was leaving public life to fight “dementia, probably Alzheimer’s disease”. She died Friday morning in Phoenix, capital of the state of Arizona (southwest), the Court said in a press release, specifying that she had died “from complications linked to advanced dementia, probably Alzheimer’s, and respiratory illness.
“A daughter of the American Southwest, Sandra Day O’Connor blazed a historic trail as the first female justice of our country’s Supreme Court,” wrote Chief Justice John Roberts, praising “her unwavering determination, her undeniable competence and his disarming frankness. “At the Supreme Court, we mourn a beloved colleague, a fiercely independent advocate for the rule of law, and an eloquent civil rights activist,” it added.
A centrist position which has often tilted the majority
Throughout her almost quarter of a century at the Supreme Court, through her centrist positioning, she often swayed the majority on decisive judgments. In 1989, Sandra Day O’Connor thus saved the Roe vs. Wade decision of 1973, finally overturned by the current Court in June 2022 – recognizing a federal right to abortion by refusing to add her voice to those of four judges conservatives.
On the other hand, she joined the conservative majority of the Court to block the recount of votes in Florida (southeast) in the presidential election in 2000, allowing Republican candidate George W. Bush to win over his Democratic opponent Al Gory. After her, five other female judges were appointed to the Supreme Court, including four currently in office, a record for this institution.
In tribute to the long career and pioneering role of Sandra Day O’Connor, it was a Democratic president, Barack Obama, who presented her with the highest American civilian distinction, the Medal of Freedom, in 2009. “In As a cowgirl from the Arizona desert, I never imagined one day becoming the first female justice on the Supreme Court of the United States,” wrote in 2018 the woman who grew up on a huge and isolated ranch, saying she “deeply grateful” for her journey, despite the illness.