Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman on the U.S. Supreme Court, a rancher's daughter who wielded great power over American law from her seat at the center of the court's ideological spectrum, died on Friday in Phoenix. She was 93.
Although William Rehnquist, her Stanford Law School classmate, served as chief justice during much of her tenure, the Supreme Court during that crucial period was often called the O'Connor court, and Justice O'Connor was referred to, accurately, as the most powerful woman in America.
Very little could happen without Justice O'Connor's support when it came to the polarizing issues on the court's docket, and the law regarding affirmative action, abortion, voting rights, religion, federalism, sex discrimination and other hot-button subjects was basically what Justice O'Connor thought it should be.
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