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President Ronald Reagan ushered in a new era when, in August 1981, he nominated Sandra Day O’Connor to the United States Supreme Court – where the Arizonian would go on to make her mark as a unifying moderate and the first woman.
The former state senator, Republican majority leader and assistant attorney general – all in the Grand Canyon State – served on the nation’s highest court until her retirement in 2006. Among her most notable cases was the 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey via which the co-author preserved legal access to abortion in the United States.
O’Connor died in Phoenix on Dec. 1, 2023.
– Hannah Van Sickle, The Arizona 100