Sandra Day O’Connor announces that she has dementia
Sandra Day O’Connor, who rose from a remote Arizona ranch to become the first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, announced Tuesday that she has dementia and that she is “no longer able to participate in public life.”
A statement released by the court’s public-information office said that it was “probably Alzheimer’s disease” and that she was diagnosed “some time ago.”
O’Connor, 88, President Ronald Reagan’s first nominee to the high court, was confirmed in September 1981 by a vote of 99-0 in the U.S. Senate, breaking a nearly 200-year tradition of the nation’s highest court being made up sole-
ly of men.
On the court, O’Connor was a key swing vote, often bridging the gap between the court’s conservatives and liberals. She stepped down in 2006, in part to take care of her husband, John Jay O’Connor, who had suffered from Alzheimer’s disease.
O’Connor had slowed down her public profile in recent years. In 2016, she appeared at the opening of the downtown Phoenix building that houses the Arizona State University law school.
“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,” O’Connor wrote in the statement released Tuesday.
The statement was not released because of a dramatic change in O’Connor’s health, her son, Jay O’Connor, said.
The trigger appeared to be an Associated Press story that mentioned that O’Connor had given up her office in the Supreme Court building to the most-recent court retiree, Anthony Kennedy. Jay O’Connor told the AP that he and his brother had cleared out the office over the past year, donating some of the historic items housed there to the Smithsonian museum.
Alan Day, O’Connor’s brother, told
The Republic that he had a chicken-salad lunch with his sister last week. Day said the two discussed the confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh and O’Connor expressed regret that the process had become so acrimonious.
“It probably wasn’t at the depth it was at an earlier time,” he said, “but we just caught up and enjoyed each other’s company. That’s the best the world has to offer right now.”
Chief Justice John Roberts said in a statement that he was saddened to learn that O’Connor, like many Americans, faces the challenges of dementia.
“Justice O’Connor is of course a towering figure in the history of the United States and the indeed the world. She broke down barriers for women in the legal profession to the betterment of that profession and the country as a whole,” Roberts wrote.
He added that O’Connor serves as a role model, not only for girls and women, but for all those committed to equal justice under the law.
“Although she has announced that she is withdrawing from public life, no illness or condition can take away the inspiration she provides for those who will follow the many paths she has blazed,” Roberts continued.
Gov. Doug Ducey, in a statement released Tuesday, praised O’Connor’s life of trailblazing public service.
“When Sandra Day O’Connor was around, glass ceilings didn’t stand a chance,” the statement read.
This year, Ducey had proclaimed Sept. 25 as a holiday in her honor.
O’Connor remarked in her announcement on how fortunate she feels to be an American and to have been presented with the remarkable opportunities available to the citizens of our country.
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. Supreme Court.”
After retiring from the Supreme Court, O’Connor wrote, she made a commitment to herself, her family and her country that she would use whatever years she had left to advance civic learning and engagement.
She worked to help all citizens understand the Constitution and America’s unique system of government and to participate in their communities. Eight years ago, she started iCivics to teach the core principles of civics to middle and high-school students with free online interactive games and curriculum to make learning relevant and effective.
“We must reach all our youth, and we need to find ways to get people — young and old — more involved in their communities and their government,” she wrote.
O’Connor was raised on a ranch near Duncan, on the New Mexico border. She attended law school at Stanford University where she met her future husband, John Jay O’Connor III.
In 1957, O’Connor and her husband moved to Arizona and built an adobe home in Paradise Valley.
She was appointed as an assistant state attorney general in 1965. Four years later, Arizona Republican Gov. Jack Williams appointed O’Connor to a vacant seat in the Arizona Senate. She subsequently won two elected terms.
In 1972, O’Connor’s GOP state Senate colleagues chose her to be majority leader. She became the first woman in the country to hold such a position.
O’Connor marked the beginning of a career on the legal bench in 1974 when she was elected as a Maricopa County Superior Court judge.
Five years later, she was named to the Arizona Court of Appeals. And in 1981, O’Connor made history when President Reagan appointed her as the first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.