They thought she would not oppose abortion the termination of a pregnancy because she was a woman. Abortion is a key issue for Republican conservatives. However, many women support abortion rights or the right for a woman to choose. O'Connor made this issue somewhat confusing for the people who were studying her because she was not part of the organized women's movement which supports abortion. Although the Moral Majority a very conservative Christian group opposing or against abortion complained that O'Connor was in favor of abortion, she had cast votes against as well as for it in the legislature.
As a justice, she aligned herself with the opponents of abortion people against abortion. She also had fought to remove discrimination or unequal treatment against women from her state's bar the body that governs law rules and community property laws. As a justice, she was against discrimination based on gender. Her most famous Supreme Court opinion a formal written statement by a judge was in the court case Mississippi University for Women v.
Hogan In this decision, the Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional for a state nursing school to refuse to admit men. With this decision, she displayed her ability to rule on equality issues that affect men. Supreme Court justices are important people for any president in office. Their rulings and votes are very influential and affect law and justice in the entire country. If an important issue is at stake in a case or a vote, the justices decide the way laws are carried out, which may be at odds or in agreement with a particular president or administration.
O'Connor made decisions that sometimes confused presidents who wanted to be able to depend on her to vote in a certain way. By her vote had become unpredictable. In many decisions both sides tried to win her support. During the s, O'Connor was an important figure in determining the direction of a number of freedom rulings by the Supreme Court. These rulings included an interpretation of freedom of speech rights to speak out publicly or privately and censorship control over what people may see, do, read, write, or hear.
She also worked on a ruling about control of the Internet and cases about freedom of religion. She voted against a state-required moment of silence in public schools. She also was involved in other court cases that ruled on privacy issues that were very important to American people.
In a case against abortion rights, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, O'Connor was one of the majority who voted to keep abortion legal for women. In other words, abortion was a woman's private decision. O'Connor also influenced the court in cases involving discrimination and harassment or unwelcome verbal or physical contact based on gender. She gave the deciding vote in a decision against affirmative action in Adarand v.
Pena Affirmative action began during the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson — It was a program to improve opportunities for women and minorities in education and in the workplace.
One of the most important decisions that O'Connor took part in during her second decade on the Supreme Court was the result of one of the closest presidential elections in American history. When the votes from Florida were counted from the presidential election, the results were so close that many people wanted a recount. The justices stepped in and stopped a recount. With this ruling, they decided the election and Bush became president thirty-five days after election day.
Early in , rumors were circulating that O'Connor was planning to retire from the Supreme Court. Army in Frankfurt, Germany In the O'Connors moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where she entered private practice. She served as an assistant state attorney general of Arizona from to , then was appointed to the Arizona State Senate to fill a vacancy. In she was elected as a Republican to a full Senate term; she was twice reelected after that, serving as majority leader from to the first woman to serve in this position in any state senate.
President Ronald Reagan nominated her to the U. Supreme Court in , and she became the first woman ever to serve as justice on the Court. But O'Connor's conservatism was not monolithic. While deferential to state powers and advocating judicial restraint , she was more liberal in matters related to sexual bias, affirmative action , and First Amendment rights.
After graduating from high school in , she applied to Stanford University despite the probability that she might not be accepted because she was a woman. Competing against many other applicants, she was accepted.
Sandra excelled and became Senior Class President at Stanford. In a program in which she finished two degrees in just six years instead of seven, she graduated in with a bachelor's degree in economics and received her law degree in While in law school, she was a member of the board of editors for the Stanford Law Review , a very high honor for a law student. Upon graduation, she was at the top of her class, graduating third out of students.
O'Connor was just two places behind a fellow law student and friend who went on to become Supreme Court justice, William H. Rehnquist — After graduating from law school, O'Connor busily went about applying to law firms in San Francisco and Los Angeles, but because of the prejudices against women at that time, she could not get a job as a lawyer.
She was offered a position as a legal secretary, which did not match her education and training. Instead, she took a position as a deputy county attorney in San Mateo, California, initially offering to work for no salary or office, and where she shared space with a secretary.
During this time, she also married John O'Connor, who was one class behind her at Stanford. Upon his completion of law school, the couple moved to Germany, where he served as an attorney in the U. She then worked as a civilian attorney, specializing in contracts. O'Connor and another lawyer opened a law office in suburban Maryvale; but for the next few years she devoted most of her time to raising her three sons, who were born between and
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