The Annotated Bobblehead Justice Sandra Day O'Connor
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Sandra Day O'Connor, 1981-2006
Born in El Paso, Texas, in 1930, O'Connor spent the first five years of her life with her parents on the Lazy B Ranch in Arizona. When she turned five, she moved to El Paso to live with her grandmother during the school months, but returned to the ranch each summer. She graduated from high school at the age of sixteen and attended Stanford University, graduating with distinction (and a degree in economics) in 1950. O'Connor continued her legal studies at Stanford and graduated near the top of her class in 1952. She married fellow student John Jay O'Connor III the same year. As a woman, O'Connor had difficulty finding attorney positions at law firms. From 1953-1965, O'Connor was a civilian lawyer to the Quartermaster Corps. When her husband's Judge Advocate General position took the family overseas, she opened her own law firm. After raising a child, she returned to work in 1965 as an assistant state attorney general in Arizona. She was an Arizona State Senator from 1969-1979, when she was appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals. President Ronald Reagan nominated O'Connor to replace Justice Potter Stewart in 1981. She was unanimously confirmed by the Senate. O'Connor became the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court.
1. Sandra Day O'Connor. The Life of the Law: Principles of Logic and Experience from the United States. Gauer Distinguished Lecture in Law and Public Policy. Washington, D.C., 1995. 
2. Sandra Day O'Connor and H. Alan Day. Lazy B: Growing Up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest. New York, 2002. 
3. Sandra Day O'Connor. The Majesty of the Law: Reflections of a Supreme Court Justice. New York, 2003. 
4. Sandra Day O'Connor. Out of Order: Stories from the History of the Supreme Court. New York, 2013.
