Justice Sandra Day O'Connor
Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the United States
Interviewed by Marci A. Hamilton and Barbara Bennett Woodhouse
Watch the full video or read the transcript (PDF: 245.83 KB).
About the Interview
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was interviewed by Marci A. Hamilton, Fox Professor of Practice, University of Pennsylvania, and Barbara Bennett Woodhouse, LQC Lamar Professor of Law, Emory University School of Law, on January 30, 2015, in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Biography
Sandra Day O’Connor (Retired), Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the United States, was born in El Paso, Texas, March 26, 1930. She married John Jay O’Connor III in 1952 and has three sons—Scott, Brian, and Jay. She received her BA and LLB from Stanford University. She served as deputy county attorney of San Mateo County, California, from 1952 to 1953 and as a civilian attorney for Quartermaster Market Center, Frankfurt, Germany, from 1954 to 1957. From 1958 to 1960, she practiced law in Maryvale, Arizona, and served as assistant attorney general of Arizona from 1965 to 1969. She was appointed to the Arizona State Senate in 1969, and was subsequently reelected to two two-year terms. In 1975, she was elected judge of the Maricopa County Superior Court and served until 1979, when she was appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals. President Reagan nominated her as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and she took her seat September 25, 1981. Justice O’Connor retired from the Supreme Court on January 31, 2006.
Video Excerpts
On ruling narrowly
On working with her clerks
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