Sandra Day O’Connor, the retired Supreme Court justice who was the first woman on the nation’s highest court, has died, the court announced Friday. She was 93.
O’Connor was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981, and retired in 2006. The Supreme Court said she died Friday in Phoenix of complications from dementia and a respiratory illness; she announced in 2018 that she was in the early stages of what was likely Alzheimer’s, which took her husband John’s life in 2009.
Reagan’s nomination and subsequent Senate confirmation made O’Connor the first woman after 191 years of exclusively male justices. Raised on a remote Arizona ranch established by her grandfather, O’Connor swiftly became known for toughness and work ethic while serving on the bench.
She stood as a bulwark against massive pressure in 1989 to reverse Roe v. Wade, declining to join four justices who were prepared to allow states to outlaw abortions. A few years later, she would hold together a five-justice majority that would uphold the decision that stood from 1973 until last year.
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