OPINION:
FIRST: SANDRA DAY O’CONNOR: AN INTIMATE PORTRAIT OF THE FIRST FEMALE SUPREME COURT JUSTICE
By Evan Thomas
Random House, $32, 496 pages
When Ronald Reagan fulfilled a campaign promise to name the first female U.S. Supreme Court justice, Sandra Day O’Connor of Arizona got the nod. She became an instant celebrity. Her confirmation hearings were the first ever televised in their entirety.
Justice O’Connor’s life and extraordinary career are chronicled in the meticulously researched biography “First: Sandra Day O’Connor: An Intimate Portrait of the First Woman Supreme Court Justice” by veteran Washington reporter Evan Thomas.
Sandra Day was born in El Paso, Texas, 200 miles east of her parents’ home, as it was the closest city with an appropriate hospital. She was raised on a cattle ranch in southeast Arizona known as the Lazy B in a house lacking indoor plumbing and electricity.
Through access to Mrs. O’Connor’s correspondence, Mr. Thomas is able to reveal her relationships with suitors. One particular law school suitor was her classmate, William Rehnquist. Rehnquist, of course, was named an associate justice in 1972 and elevated to chief justice in 1986. Their acquaintance was common knowledge when Mrs. O’Connor joined the court. Mr. Thomas’ research reveals Rehnquist’s feelings to be more serious, with him proposing marriage in a letter. (Rehnquist worked behind the scenes to urge President Reagan’s Justice Department to consider Mrs. O’Connor for the Supreme Court. Mr. Thomas reports this was a significant advantage.)
When Sandra Day graduated from Stanford Law School near the top of her class, she found doors to major law firms closed to female attorneys. The reason given: Clients would not want to deal with female attorneys. Her husband, John O’Connor, an attorney himself, prospered in Phoenix legal circles while his wife practiced law in a storefront located in a strip mall.
Another of Justice O’Connor’s “firsts” was serving as majority leader of the Arizona Senate, the first woman to hold such a position in an American legislative body. Her experience helped wrangle the five votes needed to forge a majority opinion on the court.
Mr. Thomas identifies Justice Harry Blackmun as Justice O’Connor’s first nemesis on the Supreme Court. The year before Justice O’Connor was confirmed, with the possibility that a female justice might be appointed, the eight male justices took a vote on whether to do away with the appellation “Mr. Justice.” Only Blackmun voted to retain it.
When they arrived in Washington, Justice O’Connor and her husband maintained a packed social calendar. The O’Connors often described people with whom they interacted as “attractive” or “unattractive.” These judgments were based on how they comported themselves rather than their appearance. Blackmun got his nose out of joint when the media obsessed over Justice O’Connor’s demand on the social circuit. A newspaper article stated “Nobody cares about the comings and goings of, say, Justice Harry A. Blackmun.”
Justice Byron White, a former professional football player, nearly crushed her hand when he shook it. In an attempt to help Justice O’Connor settle in at the court, Chief Justice Warren Burger sent her an academic paper titled “The Solo Woman in a Professional Peer Group.” Mr. Thomas gives the best look at the Supreme Court’s internal politics since Bob Woodward and Scott Armstrong’s “The Brethren.”
Mr. Thomas devotes a chapter each to Supreme Court cases on abortion and affirmative action heard during Justice O’Connor’s tenure. He notes Justice O’Connor’s judicial philosophy as one of “consequentialism,” the view of the long-term effects of the court’s ruling. Some conservative readers may bristle at this pragmatic approach. When the Supreme Court upheld an affirmative action program at the University of Michigan Law School, Justice Antonin Scalia described her as a “politician with legal training.”
Even in ascending to the Supreme Court, Justice O’Connor still had to contend with numerous personal challenges, including a battle with cancer. In her later years, her husband was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. She often brought him with her to her chambers at the Supreme Court.
“First” is a majestic biography befitting its subject. It is a study of achievement thanks to gracious grit and a testament to the strength of character. Mr. Thomas’ outstanding narrative makes Sandra Day O’Connor and her work accessible. The many interviews with Justice O’Connor herself, friends and family, law clerks and others who knew her give the book immense depth. In 2018, Sandra Day O’Connor announced she had been diagnosed with dementia and retired from public life. Future generations of scholars, lawyers and everyday Americans will benefit from reading this book.
• Kevin P. McVicker is a writer in Alexandria, Va.
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