The Impact of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor

• Author: Hon. Ruth Mcgregor, Deborah Merrit T, Barbara Bennett Woodhouse, Sharon L. Beckman, Rebecca A. Beynon, Hon. Michelle Friedland, Ronnell Andersen Jones
• Pages: 28-30

LITIGATION 28

The Impact of

Justice Sandra

Day O’Connor

Reflections by Her Law Clerks

HON. RUTH MCGREGOR, DEBORAH MERRITT, BARBARA BENNETT WOODHOUSE, SHARON L. BECKMAN,

REBECCA A. BEYNON, HON. MICHELLE FRIEDLAND, AND RONNELL ANDERSEN JONES

The authors served as law clerks to Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.

Although women were making inroads into the legal profession

in 1981, few women served on federal or state appellate courts,

and progress seemed incredibly slow. Despite the unprecedented

efforts of President Jimmy Carter, women held just 7 percent

of federal judicial positions. In state courts, women filled just 6

percent of judicial positions, and 18 states remained in which a

woman had never served on its highest court.

Then, on July 7, 1981, the world changed for women in general

and women in law in particular when President Ronald Reagan

announced the nomination of Judge Sandra Day O’Connor to the

Supreme Court of the United States. I was a practicing lawyer

in Phoenix and well recall the exhilaration and hope our small

group of women lawyers expressed as we spoke with one another.

I recall also the feeling of solidarity among women lawyers and

judges across the nation. Although most of us had played no role

at all in ensuring this nomination, we felt somehow that it was a

victory in which we all shared.

We also believed that women would soon become full-fledged

partners in the justice system. After all, Justice O’Connor had

breached the last, highest barrier in the legal profession. If, as Justice

O’Connor would soon show to be the case, a woman could fulfill

the duties of this most difficult position, what argument remained

that women could not fill any professional position? What possible

reason remained for denying women other judicial positions?

Nearly 40 years have passed since that historic nomination. A

look back in time reveals just how much has changed. Although

many factors coalesced to assure women greater opportunities

as judges, the increase in women judges accelerated almost im-

mediately after Justice O’Connor joined the Supreme Court. For

instance, before 1981, just 18 women had ever served on state

courts of last resort. Between 1981 and 1983, 10 more women

joined that group. And after 15 years, the percentage of women

serving as federal and state court judges approximately tripled.

Without the attention paid to Justice O’Connor’s nomination

and the renewed confidence and determination among women

and appointing authorities, I suspect that the increase in women

judges would have continued at its prior glacial pace.

But the impact of Justice O’Connor extended far beyond num-

bers. She encouraged and mentored scores of women—and men

as well. She expanded the role of a Supreme Court justice and

took her message of civic engagement and the importance of

the rule of law to non-lawyers as well as to lawyers, internation-

ally as well as domestically. She encouraged her law clerks and

other young lawyers to consider how they could serve the public

and their profession. She showed us all the value of hard work

and commitment to doing one’s best on every task. She showed,

through her actions as well as her speech, that discrimination

on any basis cannot be tolerated. We will never know how many