O’Connor faces diagnosis of dementia
First female justice on Supreme Court to leave public life
Sandra Day O’Connor, 88, the first woman to serve as a justice on the Supreme Court, reveals she has dementia and has decided to withdraw from public life.
Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to serve as a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court and a critical swing vote for much of her tenure, revealed Tuesday that she had dementia and had decided to withdraw from public life as the disease advanced.
In a letter addressed to “friends and fellow Americans,” O’Connor, 88, wrote that she was told she had early-stage dementia “some time ago” and that doctors believed it was most likely Alzheimer’s disease.
“Since many people have asked about my current status and activities, I want to be open about these changes, and while I am still able, share some personal thoughts,” O’Connor wrote in the letter. “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 said she would keep living in Phoenix, where she returned when she left the court in 2005. Her husband, John J. O’Connor III, died in 2009 after a battle with Alzheimer’s, and his diagnosis was a large factor in her decision to retire from the court.
Chief Justice John Roberts said on Tuesday that O’Connor was a “towering figure in the history of the United States and indeed the world.”
“She serves as a role model not only for girls and women, but for all those committed to equal justice under law,” Roberts said in a statement after the announcement.
The House Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi, called her a “trailblazer in every sense.”
O’Connor was born in El Paso, and grew up in Arizona on the Lazy B Ranch, 250 square miles of high desert along the state’s border with New Mexico. Her upbringing has remained a point of pride, and she has often referred to herself as a cowgirl.
“It is possible to survive and even make a living in that formidable terrain,” she wrote in her memoir of her childhood, “Lazy B,” in 2002. “The Day family did it for years; but it was never easy. It takes planning, patience, skill and endurance.”
She left Arizona for Stanford Law School, where she finished third in her class in 1952. It was also where she met her future husband, a fellow law-review editor at the university.
The top graduate in her class was William H. Rehnquist, the future chief justice, who received a clerkship on the Supreme Court. But as a woman, O’Connor was turned down again and again for jobs at law firms. She did, however, receive offers to be an administrative assistant.
For nearly 25 years, O’Connor was the swing vote on numerous social issues, including abortion and other polarizing topics, and her minimalist and moderate opinions placed her squarely in the middle of a sharply divided court.
She later created iCivics, a nonprofit civic education group that teaches civics through online games and lesson plans.
“We must reach all our youth, and we need to find ways to get people — young and old — more involved in their communities and in their government,” O’Connor wrote Tuesday. “I can no longer help lead this cause, due to my physical condition. It is time for new leaders to make civic learning and civic engagement a reality for all.”