Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. on Thursday expressed his condolences to former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, remembering her legacy as the first female Supreme Court justice and her legacy of civility and civility since leaving office. He praised his efforts to improve.
At a ceremony honoring her contributions to civics education at Duke University, Chief Justice Roberts reiterated her admiration for her former colleague, the seminal swing justice who has been dubbed the most influential woman in America. . He honored her in December, shortly after her death at the age of 93.
“Sandra Day O'Connor expanded the public image of what it means to be a judge,” he said. “She was alarmed by her growing lack of awareness of what it means to be a citizen.”
She received the Bolch Award for the Rule of Law on Thursday for her work in civics education. This award is often given to honor the lifetime achievements of former Justice Anthony M. Kennedy and others. The award went to her son, Scott O'Connor.
The paths of Chief Justice Roberts and Justice O'Connor have long crossed.
On her first day at the Justice Department in 1981, the young Roberts was tasked with helping the future judiciary prepare for her Senate confirmation hearings and drafting answers to questions she expected to face. Ta. She was ultimately approved on a 99-0 vote.
Justice O'Connor will then sit on the court in all of the more than 30 cases that Chief Justice Roberts has argued before the Supreme Court as an attorney, he told Thursday's audience.
A few years later, in 2005, when Judge O'Connor announced his retirement, he was appointed by President George W. Bush to succeed him. The two ultimately served on the bench together less than a year after Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist's death, leaving a more urgent vacancy.
For a brief period before Justice Amy Coney Barrett took over in 2020, Chief Justice Roberts got a taste of the role Justice O'Connor had played as a swing vote and ideological center for much of her time on the court. During his nearly 25 years on the court, Justice O'Connor often argued for compromises on controversial issues such as abortion, gay rights, and affirmative action.
Chief Justice Roberts echoed previous public remarks in memory of Justice O'Connor, citing how Justice O'Connor laid the foundation for women to follow at a time when women were not considered equal. , paid tribute to Justice O'Connor's pioneering role.
Flipping through photos of her early in her career, he pauses several times to highlight the striking lack of other women around her in her law school classes, moot court competitions, and later at the Supreme Court, noting that she's one of the few in the crowd. It made me laugh.
“I certainly felt that as the first woman on the Supreme Court, she felt she had a responsibility to show that she was more than capable of keeping up with the boys,” he said Thursday. “But I think she also felt a responsibility, as the most powerful woman in America, to do everything in her power to promote the values that define this country.”
Judge O'Connor resigned in 2006 to care for her husband, who was battling Alzheimer's disease, but remained active in public life, hearing cases before the Court of Appeals and promoting civics education, including by establishing an online program. She announced in 2018 that she has dementia.
But her example helped open doors for others. Currently, four of the nine judges are women.
