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Name:
Sandra Day O'Connor
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
Dates:
Born: March 26, 1930
Died: n/a
Law Degree: 1952
Sworn in: September 26, 1981
Biography:
Sandra Day O'Connor (1930- ) was the first woman ever to be appointed as an associate
justice of the United States Supreme Court. O'Connor's conservative tendencies are
perhaps most obvious when it comes to criminal matters and conflicts between state and
federal powers. Her time spent in the Arizona state senate and as a judge on Arizona's
court of appeals may be an important factor in her tendency to side with state
governments against federal intrusions.
An important aspect of her tenure on the Court has been her reworking of how cases involving religous liberty have been decided. O'Connor never entirely agreed with the three pronged Lemon Test and instead has substituted her own ideas as to how to determine whether or not particular government actions with regard to religion should be found constitutional. The Lemon Test would invalidate a statute because it had the primary purpose or effect of advancing or inhibiting religion or if it caused excessive entanglement between government and religion. Justice O'Connor, however, has effectively combined the two into the single test of whether or not a law intends or can reasonably be perceived to endorse religion.
Although she started out decidedly conservative, she has over time become an important swing vote on the Court - sometimes voting with more liberal justices and other times voting with conservative justices. It isn't unusual for lawyers to frame their arguments with her in mind because, if they can convince her of the validity of their position, then they stand a very good chance of getting at least a 5-4 decision in their favor.
Another notable feature of her decisions is their narrowness. It is common for O'Connor to write decisions which rely upon very specific facts of the case and to reach findings which apply to a very specific range of situations. She has even written concurring opinions to "clarify" the majority's decision or to provide alternative and more narrow grounds to reach the same conclusion. Thus, she is not inclined to write opinions which set forth guiding principles on very general grounds.
Also Known As: none
Alternate Spellings: none
Common Misspellings: none
Related Resources:
What are Political and Legal Philosophy
The Philosophy of Politics and the Philosophy of Law are often studied separately, but they are presented here jointly because they both come back to the same thing: the study of force. Politics is the study of political force in the general community, while jurisprudence is the study of how laws can and should be used to achieve political and social goals.What is Philosophy?
What is philosophy? Is there any point in studying philosophy, or is it a useless subject? What are the different branches of philosophy - what's the difference between aestheitcs and ethics? What's the difference between metaphysics and epistemology?
