O'Connor, Sandra Day (1930- )

US Supreme Court associate justice 1981-2005. She became the first female member of the court when nominated by President Ronald Reagan. Considered a moderate conservative, she dissented in Texas v. Johnson (1990), a decision that ruled that the legality of burning the US flag in protest was protected by the First Amendment.

Born in El Paso, Texas, O'Connor attended Stanford University and Stanford University Law School. She practised law in California 1952-53, in Germany with the US Quartermaster Corps 1954-57, and in Arizona 1958-60, where she also became active in the Republican Party.

In 1965 she became an assistant Arizona attorney general and in 1969 was appointed to a vacancy in the state senate, to which she was later elected and of which she became majority leader 1972. In 1974 she was elected a county court judge and in 1979 was appointed to the state court of appeals.