September 21 – First Female Supreme Court Justice

nPostednon September 21, 2016

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nWithnthe craziness of politics these days, it’s hard to believe that, onnthis date in 1981, Sandra Day O’Connor was UNANIMOUSLY approved bynthe United States Senate to be a Supreme Court Justice.

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nUnanimously?nI wouldn’t have thought that the Senate could be unanimous onnagreeing that oranges are fruits, even! I’ve become so used toneverything being divisive, no compromise, and precious littlen“reaching across the aisle,” I’ve forgotten that there could bensuch a thing as a president nominating a judge to be justice and thenentire Senate coming together to say, “Yes! Good choice! Let’s donthis!”

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nButnthat is pretty much what happened when President Ronald Reagan nominatednO’Connor.

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nApparentlynReagan had promised to nominate the first female Supreme Court Justice. He chose a woman who had served as a deputyncounty attorney, Assistant Attorney General of Arizona, an ArizonanState Senator and Majority Leader, and judge in a county superiorncourt and the Arizona State Court of Appeals.

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And,nalthough Sandra Day O’Connor was a Republican when she served as State Senator andnMajority Leader, she was deemed qualified for the position on thenSupreme Court, smart and informed and fair, and all of the Democratsnjoined all of the Republicans to approve her!

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nInam not saying that such votes should be unanimous, always, but Inlike the fact that politics did use to be a bit morentwo-parties-working-together, back in the day. Because that meansnthat there is hope it can be that way again!

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nHerenis a super short timeline of women in the judiciary:

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1869n– Arabella Mansfield becomes the first licensed female lawyer innthe U.S.

1884n– Marilla Ricker becomes the first female U.S. Commissioner

1907n– Catherine Waugh McCullock becomes the first female elected tonserve as justice of the peace

1914n– Georgia Bullock becomes a “woman judge” in charge of a courtnsegregated by sex

1920n– Florence Allen becomes the first female elected to position ofngeneral jurisdiction court

1922n– Florence Allen becomes the first female state appellate judge

1928n– Genevieve Rose Cline becomes the first female named to a federalnbench of any sort (a U.S. Customs Court)

1933n– Florence Allen becomes the first female federal appellate judge

1949n– Burnita Shelton Matthews becomes the first female judge servingnon a federal district court

1981n– Sandra Day O’Connor becomes the first female U.S. Supreme CourtnJustice

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nIt’snneat to realize that, although it took 132 years for women to be ablento vote in the U.S. (counting from the first U.S. election in 1788nuntil 1920, the first election after the Nineteenth Amendment wasnratified), it only took 112 years for women to move from first being allowed tonbe a lawyer to becoming a Supreme Court Justice, and only 61 yearsnfrom becoming any sort of judge in the U.S. to becoming a SupremenCourt Justice!

nToday, women make up about a third of all judges andnjustices in the U.S., and about a third of the Supreme Court.

nActually, the SupremenCourt bench was precisely one-third female, not “about a third female,” until Justice Antonin Scalia died in February of 2016. Out of nine spots on the bench (Scalia’s spot remains vacant), three are women: Ruth Baden Ginsburg, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor.

O’Connor retired from SCOTUS in 2006. She retired in order to spend time with her husband, who suffered from Alzheimer’s Disease and ended up dying in 2009. Since his death she has acted as a substitute judge, and she has worked to educate people about the separation of powers and the role of the judiciary and the Supreme Court in the Constitution and the U.S. government. She is writing a book and serves on the boards of several institutes. She even started her own non-profit organization that encourages people to make policy decisions through a process of informed discussion and critical analysis of evidence.

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nAlsonon this date: