Sandra Day O'Connor was nominated by President Reagan as Associate
Justice of the United States Supreme Court on July 7, 1981, and took
the oath of office on September 25. O'Connor previously served on the
Arizona Court of Appeals (1979-81) and as judge of the Maricopa County
Superior Court in Phoenix, Arizona (1975-79). She was appointed as
Arizona state senator in 1969 and was subsequently elected to two
two-year terms from 1969 to 1975. During her tenure, she was Arizona
Senate Majority Leader and Chairman of the State, County, and
Municipal Affairs Committee, and she served on the Legislative
Council, on the Probate Code Commission, and on the Arizona Advisory
Council on Intergovernmental Relations.
From 1965 to 1969, O'Connor was assistant attorney general in Arizona.
She practiced law at a private firm in Maryvale, Arizona, from 1958 to
1960 and prior to that was civilian attorney for Quartermaster Market
Center in Frankfurt, Germany (1954-57), and deputy county attorney in
San Mateo County, California (1952-53)
She was previously Chairman of the Arizona Supreme Court Committee to
Reorganize Lower Courts (1974-75), Vice Chairman of the Arizona Select
Law Enforcement Review Commission (1979-80), and, in Maricopa County,
Chairman of the Bar Association Lawyer Referral Service (1960-62), the
Juvenile Detention Home Visiting Board (1963-64), and the Superior
Court Judges' Training and Education Committee (1977-79) and a member
of the Board of Adjustments and Appeals (1963-64).
O'Connor currently serves as Chancellor of the College of William and
Mary and on the Board of Trustees of the Rockefeller Foundation, the
Executive Board of the Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative,
the Advisory Board of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural
History, and the Advisory Committee of the American Society of
International Law, Judicial. She is an honorary member of the Advisory
Committee for the Judiciary Leadership Development Council, an
honorary chair of America's 400th Anniversary: Jamestown 2007, a
co-chair of the National Advisory Council of the Campaign for the Civic
Mission of Schools, a member of the Selection Committee of the
Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum, and a member of the Advisory
Board of the Stanford Center on Ethics. She also serves on several
bodies of the American Bar Association, including the Museum of Law
Executive Committee, the Commission on Civic Education and Separation
of Powers, and the Advisory Commission of the Standing Committee on
the Law Library of Congress.
O'Connor previously served as a member of the Anglo-American Exchange
(1980); the State Bar of Arizona Committees on Legal Aid, Public
Relations, Lower Court Reorganization, and Continuing Legal Education;
the National Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services
(1974-76); the Arizona State Personnel Commission (1968-69); the
Arizona Criminal Code Commission (1974-76); and the Cathedral Chapter
of the Washington National Cathedral (1991-99).
O'Connor is a member of the American Bar Association, the State Bar of
Arizona, the State Bar of California, the Maricopa County Bar
Association, the Arizona Judges' Association, the National Association
of Women Judges, and the Arizona Women Lawyers' Association. She holds
a B.A. (with Great Distinction) and an LL.B. (Order of the Coif) from
Stanford University, where she was also a member of the board of
editors of the Stanford Law Review.