VIDEO PROVIDED BY CNN WIRE.
Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, has died at age 93 according to an announcement from the court this morning. The court said that O’Connor died in Phoenix and that the cause of death was complications related to Alzheimer’s along with a respiratory illness.
O’Connor had served on the Supreme Court until 2006. She had been nominated to the court by President Reagan in 1981. Her retirement opened the way for President George W. Bush to appoint Samuel Alito to the high court. While serving on the court, O’Connor ruled in such cases as affirmative action and detaining combatants at Guantanamo Bay.
According to the court, “following her retirement from the court on Jan. 31, 2006, Justice O’Connor remained active as an advocate for judicial independence and the Rule of Law throughout the world. In recognition of her lifetime accomplishments, President Barack Obama awarded Justice O’Connor with the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, on Aug. 12, 2009.”
During her years on the Supreme Court, O’Connor was often at the center of the court’s deliberations. O’Connor frequently found herself referred to as the “swing vote” because her pragmatic approach to judging sometimes resulted in her vote being cast among the majority in 5-4 decisions. She authored 676 opinions in her career, 301 of which were the Opinion of the Court, touching on a wide range of issues. “Being a member of the court,” she once said, “is a little like walking through fresh concrete. We look back and see our footprints in those opinions that we’ve written and they tend to harden after us.”
