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Sandra Day O’Connor, First Woman to Serve on U.S. Supreme Court, Dies at 93

HeadlineDec 04, 2023

Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to serve as a United States Supreme Court justice, has died at the age of 93. She was appointed by Ronald Reagan and sworn in in 1981. She served until 2006. She often acted as the swing vote of the court, including in 1992’s landmark case Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which upheld the constitutional right to an abortion.

In 2000, O’Connor cast the fifth vote in Bush v. Gore, leading to George W. Bush’s election victory. Two-and-a-half years later, Bush led the U.S. into an illegal invasion of Iraq. In 2013, the then-retired Sandra Day O’Connor suggested the Supreme Court should not have taken the Bush v. Gore case.

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