Today in history: Sandra Day O'Connor Is Sworn In

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Sandra Day O'Connor Is Sworn In

September 25, 1981

The Supreme Court welcomed its first female associate justice 40 years ago today. Sandra Day O’Connor previously made history in Arizona, as the first woman elected as the majority leader of a state Senate. During the 1980 presidential campaign, Ronald Reagan vowed to nominate a woman to the Supreme Court if he won the election. Reagan got the opportunity in the summer of 1981, when Justice Potter Stewart announced his retirement. The Senate unanimously confirmed O’Connor, an appellate judge who had experience working in all three branches of the U.S. government. After she was sworn in, Justice O’Connor donated the judicial robe she wore at the ceremony to the National Museum of American History.

A centrist, O’Connor often supplied the deciding vote throughout her 25 years on the Supreme Court. Another female justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, joined her on the bench in 1993. Owing partly to both women’s influence, by the time O’Connor stepped down in 2006, 48% of law school students in the U.S. were women, a 12% increase from a generation prior. O’Connor returned to the U.S. Court of Appeals, continuing her career in public service. In 2009, President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

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1. You know you should been asleep a while back when you read the headline as...

"....Sinead O'Conor is sworn in..."

Wait.... what...

😂