Sandra Day O’Connor is much more than just the first female Supreme Court justice

Oct. 24--Sandra Day O'Connor may be stepping away from public life, but her legacy lingers on years after her 2006 retirement from the Supreme Court.

O'Connor, 88, announced Tuesday she has been diagnosed with the beginning stages of "dementia, probably Alzheimer's," the same disease that killed her husband John in 2009.

Though she's backing out of the spotlight, O'Connor's legacy has been in the making since 1981, when Ronald Reagan appointed her as the first woman to the Supreme Court.

The Stanford Law School graduate had worked for years as a legislator in Arizona and served several terms in the Arizona State Senate before joining the high court.

"She was not well-known nationally, although obviously she had extraordinarily good credentials," Michael Dorf, a professor at Cornell Law School, told the Daily News. "She... probably would have been better known and had achieved more had she not been held back by sex discrimination."

In her early years on the bench, O'Connor was among the more conservative justices, though over time she came to be seen as more moderate.

"I think that's because the court overall moved to the right," Dorf explained. "She stayed more or less where she was, but that became the center of the court."

One of O'Connor's best-known cases came in 1992, when she, Justice Anthony Kennedy and Justice David Souter jointly co-authored the opinion of Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which upheld the right to an abortion but also invalidated spousal notification in Pennsylvania.

Dorf said O'Connor had long avoided committing "fully" to the question of abortion, but had, along with Kennedy and Souter, been appointed by Republicans with the expectation that they would cast votes to overrule Roe v. Wade.

"While (Parenthood v. Casey) cut back on it a bit, it ultimately reaffirmed the abortion right," he explained.

Stewart Schwab, a professor and former dean at Cornell Law who worked as a clerk for O'Connor from 1982-1983, noted that in cases like that one, he was always impressed by her ability to stay poised under pressure.

"(In the early years) it really did feel like the whole world was watching to see what this woman justice was going to say about (abortion)," he said. "And I have always admired her, I think her grace under that pressure is really unparalleled."

And while she's also closely associated with the 2000 case Bush v. Gore (her vote made it a 5-4 majority that Bush had the electoral votes he needed to win Florida and therefore the presidency), Dorf emphasizes that perhaps her legacy should instead lie in her decisions in federalism cases, like New York v. United States in 1992.

That specific case involved the Low-Level Radio Waste Act and sent a message to Congress that it was unable to force states to pass laws the states did not like.

"These were seen at the time as conservative decisions, but they're actually not clearly conservative or liberal," Dorf said. "So it's on the basis of those rulings that states and localities that have declared themselves sanctuary cities or sanctuary jurisdictions have been successfully resisting the Trump administration's efforts to force them to enforce federal immigration law."

Schwab said O'Connor always wanted to "get beyond" her association with Bush v. Gore, which was reflective of her philosophy: "Don't look back and always look at the next case."

He also made a point to call out affirmative action opinions like Grutter v. Bollinger, which "basically upheld diversity as a constitution-permissible goal."

O'Connor retired in 2006 to spend time with her ailing husband, but not before inspiring countless women to pursue their own paths in law and politics.

California Sen. Kamala Harris wrote on Twitter that O'Connor "paved the way and showed young girls everywhere that they too could grow up and become a Supreme Court Justice."

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi praised O'Connor as a "trailblazer in every sense."

"It's a testament to her patriotism that she is approaching this difficult new chapter with the same selflessness that defined her legal career," Pelosi wrote on Twitter. "I pray that she continues to be blessed with her trademark strength and grace."

Sen. Susan Collins, meanwhile, said O'Connor "exemplifies excellence in public service, & she continues to be a role model to women & an inspiration to young people."

O'Connor has also ensured her legacy endures with iCivics, a nonprofit she founded nearly a decade ago that uses video games to get young people involved in their communities and in government.

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