Genealogy Data Page 905 (Notes Pages)

Note: Retired justice recognized for her lifelong contributions to public
> service for Arizona and the nation
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> ASU is naming the College of Law after retired Supreme Court Justice
> Sandra Day O'Connor, in honor of her lifelong dedication to public
> service, her intellectual vigor and her sense of fair-mindedness.
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> The Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at ASU was announced at an April 5
> press conference at ASU. Dignitaries attending the press conference
> included Gov. Janet Napolitano, Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Ruth
> McGregor and ASU President Michael M. Crow.
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> "We are establishing a permanent and living tribute to Justice O'Connor,
> one that will honor a native daughter who has provided extraordinary
> service to her state and country," Crow says. "This will be a living
> tribute, because it will continue over generations of students. Justice
> O'Connor is a quintessential Arizonan, and we want to celebrate that. We
> want to associate ourselves and our school with the values that she stands
> for, including integrity, public service, personal independence, the
> willingness to take risks, wonderful curiosity, high intellectual
> standards, and an abiding commitment to justice and the rule of law."
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> Adds Napolitano: "Sandra Day O'Connor was Arizona's gift to the national
> legal community, and it is altogether fitting that we name one of our
> premier law schools in her honor."
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> "We are very excited about the opportunity to be the first law school
> named after a contemporary woman," says Patricia White, dean of ASU's
> College of Law. "One cannot overestimate Justice O'Connor's importance as
> a role model for women, and how central her success has been to the
> acceptance of women in legal practice and the judiciary.
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> "We believe this is the first major law school in the country to be named
> after a living person solely on the basis of merit. We are choosing to
> honor Justice O'Connor, and in so doing we honor ourselves. We believe
> that our association with Justice O'Connor will help us gain recognition
> of the ASU College of Law, its accomplishments and what it stands for. We
> are confident that now and in the future students, faculty and others will
> want to share in this association."
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> O'Connor served as the first female associate justice of the Supreme Court
> of the United States (1981 - 2006), and she was cited by Forbes magazine
> in 2004 as the fourth most powerful woman in the United States -- and the
> sixth most powerful in the world. Because of her case-by-case approach to
> jurisprudence and her relatively moderate political views, O'Connor was
> the crucial swing vote of the court for many of her final years on the
> bench.
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> Sandra Day was born March 26, 1930, in El Paso, Texas. She spent her early
> childhood on the Day family cattle ranch near Duncan, Ariz., but lived
> with her grandmother in El Paso when she reached school age.
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> She attended Stanford University, where she received a bachelor's degree
> in economics in 1950. She continued at Stanford for her law degree,
> completing the program in two years rather than the customary three, and
> graduating third out of a class of 102. While in law school, she met John
> Jay O'Connor III, whom she married in 1952 and with whom she has three
> sons.
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> O'Connor served as an Arizona assistant attorney general from 1965 - 1969,
> when she was appointed to a vacancy in the Arizona Senate. In 1974, she
> successfully ran for trial judge, a position she held until she was
> appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals in 1979.
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> On July 7, 1981, President Ronald Reagan nominated her to the Supreme
> Court. In September 1981, on a 99-0 confirmation vote, O'Connor became the
> Supreme Court's 102nd justice and its first female member.
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> During her time on the court, O'Connor was regarded as a consummate
> compromiser. Her votes were generally conservative, but she frequently
> surprised observers with her political independence.
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> In her later years on the Supreme Court, O'Connor's voting record was
> pivotal. She joined four liberal judges on many 5-4 decisions including
> those of Grutter v. Bollinger (2003), which affirmed the right of state
> colleges and universities to use affirmative action in their admissions
> policies to increase educational opportunities and promote racial
> diversity on campus. In Rush Prudential HMO Inc. v. Moran (2002), her vote
> helped uphold state laws giving people the right to a second doctor's
> opinion if their health maintenance organizations tried to deny them
> treatment.
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> On July 1, 2005, O'Connor announced her retirement from the Supreme Court
> after 24 years of service on the bench.
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