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The Supreme Court announced that former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court, passed away Friday morning. She was 93 years old.
O’Connor was appointed by former President Ronald Reagan in 1981. She retired in 2006.
Fox News revealed that O’Connor died from complications related to advanced dementia and a respiratory illness.
Chief Justice John Roberts paid tribute to Justice O’Connor in a statement:
A daughter of the American Southwest, Sandra Day O’Connor blazed an historic trail as our Nation’s first female Justice. She met that challenge with undaunted determination, indisputable ability, and engaging candor.
We at the Supreme Court mourn the loss of a beloved colleague, a fiercely independent defender of the rule of law, and an eloquent advocate for civics education. And we celebrate her enduring legacy as a true public servant and patriot.
Politico notes that during her 24-year-term on the bench, O’Connor voted on many of the most controversial issues the court has encountered, including abortion and affirmative action.
Arguably her most noteworthy role was casting the deciding 5-4 vote in Bush v. Gore. She joined justices Anthony Kennedy, William Rehnquist, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas in a decision which stopped Al Gore’s attempted theft of the 2000 Presidential election and ensured George W. Bush’s rightful 2000 election win.
O’Connor was also awarded the 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama for her role in transforming the American judiciary. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Kentaji Brown Jackson have joined the Supreme Court since her appointment.
O’Connor was born in El Paso, Texas on March 26, 1930. She grew up on her family’s massive 198,000-acre cattle ranch near Duncan, Arizona, which was nine miles from the nearest paved road.
For most of her K-12 schooling, Day lived in El Paso with her maternal grandmother and attended school there because the family cattle ranch was too far from any schools. O’Connor graduated high school at 16 and then attended Stanford, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in economics in 1950 and a law degree in 1952.
29 years later, she made American history.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
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