“Sandra Day O’Connor originally Sandra Day (b.1930) U.S. jurist. Born in El Paso, Texas, she studied law at Stanford University, graduating first in her class, and entered private practice in Arizona. She served as an assistant state attorney general (1965-69) before being elected in 1969 to the state senate, where she became the first woman in the U.S. to hold the position of majority leader (1972-74). After serving on the superior court of Maricopa County and the state court of appeals, she was nominated in 1981 by President Ronald Reagan to the U.S. Supreme Court and became the first female justice in the Court’s history. She proved to be a moderate and pragmatic conservative who sometimes sided with the Court’s liberal minority on social issues (e.g. abortion rights). She is known for dispassionate and meticulously researched opinions.”
Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.
Mark's Text Terminal 