Deeply hurt by articles after her nomination that suggested she was not smart enough and not very nice in the courtroom, she thought about pulling out of the process. Sotomayor almost decided not to go through with her own nomination to the court. Kennedy School of Government who studies the issues of gender and race and the law. “They have to be so perfect as to shield themselves from the criticism,” said Maya Sen, a political scientist at Harvard’s John F. Women, and in particular Black women, often feel pressure to be the most qualified in the room to overcome the outsize criticism and questions surrounding their fitness they can attract. “But for women of color, people in top positions are not as frequent and certainly not as numerous.” “I think there are, for women in general, the need for role models,” she said, citing O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the court’s second female justice, as having inspired her. Sotomayor acknowledged in a 2018 public appearance that she felt the weight of being the only woman of color on the court, calling it a “really big burden” and “a great responsibility.” Justice Sonia Sotomayor became its first Latina justice in 2009. Thurgood Marshall was the court’s first Black justice, in 1967. Louis Brandeis was the court’s first Jewish member, in 1916. Taney, the court’s first Catholic, in 1836. That will only be magnified for Biden’s nominee, who will immediately join the ranks of court firsts. of Ed., 526 U.S.WHYY thanks our sponsors - become a WHYY sponsor 833 (1992)īoard of Ed. of Westside Community Schools (Dist. Superior Court of Cal., Solano Cty., 480 U.S. 618 (1995)īoard of Comm’rs, Wabaunsee Cty. 306 (2003)Įxecutive Authority over Enemy Combatants Listed below are some of Justice O’Connor’s more prominent opinions. T-shirt designed for the morning aerobics class that Justice O’Connor hosted at the Supreme Court, 1981. We look back and see our footprints in those opinions that we’ve written and they tend to harden after us.” “Being a member of the Court,” she once said, “is a little like walking through fresh concrete. She authored 676 opinions in her career, 301 of which were the Opinion of the Court, touching on a wide range of issues. While personally disdaining the label “swing vote,” O’Connor frequently found herself referred to as such by the press because her pragmatic approach to judging sometimes resulted in her vote being cast among the majority in 5-4 decisions. When Justice Potter Stewart retired in 1981, President Reagan fulfilled that promise by nominating O’Connor, noting that she was a “person for all seasons.” The Senate unanimously confirmed her appointment on September 21, 1981, and four days later, she took her seat on the Bench.ĭuring her nearly 25 years on the Court, Justice O’Connor was often at the center of the Court’s deliberations. During his 1980 presidential campaign, Ronald Reagan made a commitment to appoint a woman to the Supreme Court of the United States. Having already served in the three branches of state government, O’Connor was about to make an even more profound mark on history.
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