Madam Justice
The first one on the high bench
Sandra Day O’Connor was the swing vote on so many Supreme Court cases that her critics began saying that laws could be upheld or thrown out of the nation’s top court “depending on what Sandra Day O’Connor had for breakfast.” Imagine being criticized because you looked at the merits of an argument, and not on partisan positions, before making a legal ruling. Which tells some of us that her critics didn’t have much to work with. (You can take that opinion more than one way. We certainly intend you do.)
Hard as it might be to imagine today, there once was a time when a woman’s place was not on the United States Supreme Court.
A mere 100 years ago, the thought of women voting in American elections was controversial. But progress happens. Especially in this country. As the cigarette ads aimed at women used to say, about the time that Sandra Day O’Connor was coming up through the ranks, you’ve come a long way, baby.
Sandra Day O’Connor was appointed to the high court in 1981—one of President Reagan’s highlights in his first term. Some say she didn’t always toe the line for conservative thought, which might be another way of saying she was an independent thinker. Pondering out loud: Would “not toeing the line” be a tolerable criticism of a male justice?
She must have taken special satisfaction in 1981 when the Senate confirmed her. After all, right out of college she was turned down by law firms because of her sex. So naturally she and her husband would start their own law firm.
And, by jingos, she’d also run for public office and serve in the Arizona state senate—becoming that state’s first female majority leader. Then she’d leave the legislative branch for the judicial and serve on a couple of benches before Renaldo Maximus would find her.
“We all bring with us to the court or to any task we undertake our own lifetime of experiences and background,” she once told an interviewer. “My perceptions might be different than some of my colleagues’, but at the end of the day we all ought to be able to agree on some sensible solution to the problem.”
How quaint. How 1979. Something tells us she’d never make it in politics today. Or even to an appeals court. Conservatives will wince at her legacy. She was the deciding vote in so many controversial court cases, including Planned Parenthood v. Casey in 1992, which reaffirmed the right to abortion. Progressives will wince at her legacy because she sided with conservatives in 2000’s Bush v. Gore that gave the presidency to the Republican that year.
On court cases, she voted with the side she thought was right, not the side she thought was “hers.” Like a wise man once said—or was it a comedian?—if you have the same answer to every question, you aren’t too bright.
Sandra Day O’Connor died last week, after having suffered from advanced dementia—a particularly regretful way to go for someone who used her brain to get her to the top of American government. As the first Madam Justice, she paved the way for all the other women now serving on the United States Supreme Court. And as the first Madam Justice, she paved the way for millions of others who saw her achievements, and decided they could start a new path, too.