1. Sandra Day O’Conner BY KENT SHOOP

2. Sandra Day O’Conner was the first women judge working for the supreme court. Sandra was born on March 26,1930 in El Paso Texas.

3. Attended Stanford University and majored in economics.

4. After graduating she married John O’Conner Upon John completion of law school, the couple moved to Germany. John served as an attorney in the U.S. army.

5. Her experiences on the ranch shaped her character and developed her belief in hard work, but her parents also wanted O'Connor to gain an education.

6. In 1974 O’Conner left the state senate and became a county judge in the Maricopa county superior court. During the 1990s O’Conner was an important figure in determining the direction of a number of freedom rulings by the supreme court.

7. In a 1992 case against abortion rights, planned parenthood v Casey O’Conner was one of the majority who voted to keep abortion legal for women. O’Conner also influenced the court in cases involving discrimination and harassment based on gender.

8. In July of the same year she made a prominent speech to the Minnesota womens lawyers association about the death penalty. O’Conner also talked about the issue of people who have been sentenced to the death penalty and then have been found innocent and set free.

9. Sandra day O’Conner has been the deciding vote in many important supreme court decisions. When the O’Conner returned to the U.S. in 1957, they decided to settle down in Phoenix Arizona they had their three sons in the six years that followed.

10. Early in 2001 rumors were circulating that O’Conner was planning to retire from the supreme court. In 2002 O’Conner offered a bit more insight into her complex character by publishing