Sandra Day O’Connor was born in El Paso, Texas, but grew up near Duncan, Arizona on a cattle ranch, which would be the basis of her book Lazy B: Growing up on a Cattle Ranch in the American West.
She attended Stanford University, where she received her B.A. in Economics in 1950, and continued afterwards at the Stanford Law School.
After graduating, Sandra Day O’Connor struggled finding a job.
Forty law firms refused to interview her because she was a woman.
She eventually found a job as a deputy county attorney in San Mateo, California before serving as an Assistant Attorney General of Arizona.
She later became a state senator for Arizona and was elected to the Maricopa County Superior Court in 1975.
She served on the Court of Appeals until 1981 when she became the first woman to be appointed to the United States Supreme Court by President Ronald Regan.
She served until her retirement in 2006.
In 2009, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor founded iCivics to reverse Americans’ declining civic knowledge and participation.
She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama, the highest civilian honor of the United States of America in 2009.
Lazy B: Growing up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest (2003)
The Majesty of the Law: Reflections of a Supreme Court Justice (2004)
Chico (2005)
Finding Susie (2009)
Out of Order: Stories from the History of the Supreme Court (2013)
O’Connor House
oconnorhouse.org
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