Sandra Day O’Connor – a life in pictures
The trailblazing judge, attorney and politician became, in 1981, the first woman to serve on the US supreme court
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A young Sandra Day O’Connor, right, on her family’s ranch in 1940. Her mother Ada Mae Day holds her brother Alan, and sister Ann is between them
Photograph: Bettmann Archive via Getty Images
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O’Connor in a yearbook photo from Stanford University in 1950
Photograph: AP
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O’Connor, second from left in the first row, and William Rehnquist, far left in the back row, in a class photograph at Stanford law school. O’Connor and Rehnquist went to be colleagues in the supreme court
Photograph: Bettmann Archive via Getty Images
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O’Connor with her husband John, second from right, and their sons Jay, Brian and Scott, in her appeals court office on 7 July 1981, the day Ronald Reagan announced he would nominate her to the US supreme court
Photograph: Bettmann Archive via Getty Images
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Reagan with O’Connor on 15 July 1981. O’Connor was Reagan’s first appointment to the supreme court
Photograph: Corbis via Getty Images
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O’Connor is sworn in before the Senate judiciary committee ahead of her confirmation hearing on 9 September 1981
Photograph: David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images
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O’Connor ducks under a potted plant in the lobby of an apartment building on her way to meet journalists after the Senate judiciary committee voted to recommend her to the Senate for a full vote on her appointment to the court on 15 September 1981.
Photograph: Dennis Cook/AP
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O’Connor is sworn in by chief justice Warren Burger on 25 September 1981. O’Connor’s husband, John, holds two family Bibles
Photograph: White House via AP
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O’Connor stands in front of the supreme court after her swearing-in ceremony
Photograph: David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images
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O’Connor and Chief Justice Warren Burger outside the supreme court
Photograph: David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images
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O’Connor at home with her husband John in Paradise Valley, Arizona
Photograph: David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images
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O’Connor in her supreme court chambers on 5 October 1981, just 10 days after she was sworn in
Photograph: David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images
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O’Connor in 1982
Photograph: Anonymous/AP
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O’Connor shakes hands at a Stanford University graduation ceremony on 15 June 1982. She received her bachelor’s and law degrees from Stanford
Photograph: Roger Ressmeyer/Corbis/VCG/Getty Images
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O’Connor at the supreme court in 1989
Photograph: Janet Fries/Getty Images
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O’Connor talks with Nancy Thurmond, the wife of Senator Strom Thurmond, at his birthday party on 9 March 1993
Photograph: CQ Archive/Getty Images
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O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Capitol Hill on 28 March 2001. Ginsburg was the second woman to ascend to the supreme court
Photograph: David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images
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O’Connor in her supreme court chambers in 2002
Photograph: David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images
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O’Connor talks with her clerks in the outer office of supreme court chambers
Photograph: David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images
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O’Connor in Manama, the capital of Bahrain, in September 2003
Photograph: Hamdi I Mohammed/Reuters
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O’Connor dons on a cowboy hat at an event in Houston, Texas, on 10 March 2005
Photograph: James Nielsen/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images
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O’Connor presides over the Rose Parade as Grand Marshall in Pasadena, California, in July 2005
Photograph: Anne Cusack/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
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A bronze statue of O’Connor stands in the atrium of the Sandra Day O’Connor US courthouse in Phoenix
Photograph: Jeff Topping/Reuters
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O’Connor attends the funeral of the former supreme court chief justice William Rehnquist
Photograph: Mark Wilson/Getty Images
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O’Connor stands for the pledge of allegiance at a citizenship naturalization ceremony in Gilbert, Arizona
Photograph: Matt York/AP
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O’Connor hold up a copy of the constitution that she carries with her at the 2005 naturalization ceremony in Gilbert, Arizona
Photograph: Matt York/AP
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O’Connor talks with the solicitor general, Elena Kagan, who went on to become a supreme court justice
Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
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Barack Obama presents the Medal of Freedom to O’Connor on 12 August 2009
Photograph: Jason Reed/Reuters
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O’Connor with her former intern Michelle Friedland in San Francisco
Photograph: Liz Hafalia/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images
