Sandra Day O'Connor: How the First Woman on the Supreme Court Became Its Most Influential Justice [Hardcover]

Joan Biskupic (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 25, 2005

Sandra Day O'Connor, America's first woman justice, became the axis on which the Supreme Court turned. She was called the most powerful woman in America, and it was often said that to gauge the direction of American law, one need look only to O'Connor's vote. Then, just one year short of a quarter century on the bench, she surprised her colleagues and the nation by announcing her retirement.

Drawing on information from once-private papers of the justices, hundreds of interviews with legal and political insiders, and the insight gained from nearly two decades of covering the Supreme Court, Joan Biskupic examines O'Connor's remarkable career, providing an in-depth account of her transformation from tentative jurist to confident architect of American law. The portrait that emerges is of a complex and multifaceted woman: lawyer, politician, legislator, and justice, as well as wife, mother, A-list society hostess, and competitive athlete. To all appearances, she was the polite lady in pearls, handbag on her arm. But in the back rooms of politics and the law, she was a determined, focused strategist. O'Connor was the feminist who, rather than rebel against the male-dominated system, worked from within -- and succeeded.

As Biskupic demonstrates, Justice O'Connor became much more than a "first." During her twenty-four-year tenure, she wrote the decisions on some of the most controversial social battles of our time. O'Connor's tie-breaking opinions on issues such as abortion rights, affirmative action, the death penalty, and religious freedom will have a lasting effect far into the future. O'Connor also cast one of the five votes that cut off the Florida recounts and allowed George W. Bush to take the White House in the 2000 contested presidential election. With an eye to the American people and a keen sense of public attitudes, she worked behind the scenes to shape the law and transform the legal standards by which future cases will be decided.

From O'Connor's isolated upbringing on the Lazy B ranch in Arizona through her time as a state legislator to her rise as a justice -- along the way confronting her own personal challenges and crises, including breast cancer -- Biskupic presents a vivid, astute depiction of the justice -- and of the woman beneath the black robe. In so doing, Sandra Day O'Connor also provides an unprecedented look inside the exclusive, famously secretive High Court.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In the late 1980s, as the Supreme Court justices were discussing a case, Antonin Scalia ranted against affirmative action. Sandra Day O'Connor, the first and then still the only woman on the High Court, replied, "Why, Nino, how do you think I got my job?" This is one of the few revelatory moments in Biskupic's bio of the retiring O'Connor as sharp-tongued, humorous and utterly realistic. It's also, as Biskupic shows in a close study of O'Connor's jurisprudence, a bit misleading: for most of her career on the Court, the conservative O'Connor voted against affirmative action. With access to justices' once private papers, longtime court observer Biskupic, now with USA Today, sheds light on the internal workings on the Court, but not much on the internal workings of the very private O'Connor's mind and heart. Biskupic does show the justice gaining confidence and force on the Court, particularly after her fight against breast cancer in 1988. As O'Connor faces retirement, Biskupic clarifies her judicial legacy, sometimes seeing the glass as half full, sometimes as half empty: praising her lack of ideology but also noting a lack of vision in a justice who often "step[s] to the brink, and then back[s] away"—a mixed legacy that will be debated for years to come. (Nov.)
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From Booklist

Before Sandra Day O'Connor's recent retirement, she was considered the most powerful woman in the U.S., exerting enormous influence as she operated from the center among the justices of the Supreme Court for a quarter of a century. Acclaimed as the first woman on the Court, O'Connor has nonetheless defied easy labels, leaving observers to wonder if she was the nonthreatening matron she appeared to be or as calculating as her colleagues. Biskupic, who has covered the Supreme Court since 1989, draws on once-private Court documents and hundreds of interviews to offer an absorbing portrait of a woman who remains somewhat enigmatic. Biskupic traces O'Connor's early lonely years on the Lazy B ranch and her years as wife, mother, and Republican state legislator in Arizona. She helped her Stanford University Law School classmate and friend William Rehnquist prepare for his nomination and was herself nominated in 1981 by President Reagan. She quickly achieved celebrity status and found herself navigating between conservatives and liberals, activists and strict constructionists. She used her talent as a natural consensus builder to control from the middle ground. O'Connor faced the challenges of a pioneering woman, dealing with political expectations and social conventions, a bout with breast cancer, and her husband's declining health--all against the backdrop of the tangled inner workings of the nation's highest court. O'Connor's retirement and the recent death of Chief Justice Rehnquist are guaranteed to boost reader interest in this illuminating biography. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Ecco (October 25, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060590181
• ISBN-13: 978-0060590185
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #782,794 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #12 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( O ) > O'Connor, Sandra Day

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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fine Judicial Biography at a most Opportune Time, October 25, 2005

By 

Ronald H. Clark (WASHINGTON, DC USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sandra Day O'Connor: How the First Woman on the Supreme Court Became Its Most Influential Justice (Hardcover)

One measure of a solid judicial biography is how complete a picture it fills out of the justice as a person. By this, and other measures, Joan Biskupic has contributed an important study of the Justice just at the point when it is most helpful--her perhaps extended "retirement" from the Court. Biskupic is the former Supreme Court reporter for the Washington Post and, more recently, USA Today. Her long time vantage point observing the Court extends at least back to the early 1990's, and this rich perspective strengthens the book.

The initial four chapters sketch out in appropriate detail O'Connor's personal and professional history. Biskupic particularly well interweaves personal developments with O'Connor's deep involvement in Republican politics (close ties to Goldwater; co-state chair for Nixon in 1972), service in the Arizona legislature, and her period as a Superior Court and appellate judge in the state system. Also, her early and close personal ties with William Rehnquist during this pre-Court Arizona period are well discussed. Strange as it may seem, her legislative record suggested sympathy for abortion rights, and this would cause her later problems during her confirmation, even though she lost interest in passing the ERA. These initial chapters give the reader a pretty solid grasp on O'Connor as a person, her values and ambitions, her competitive nature, and political skills (such as cultivating a friendship with Warren Burger) during this period.

The next several chapters are of particular interest given recent developments at the Court. The confirmation process was smooth, except for allegations by an Arizona national abortion opponent (and neighbor of O'Connor) that she was in favor of abortion. This occurred even though, according to Bikupic, O'Connor had told President Reagan she was "personally against abortion." A chapter also is devoted to her transition to the Court and the development of some of her early positions: tough on criminal justice issues and habeas corpus availablity; pro-state authority and opposed to federal intervention; pro-death penalty. Biskupic is particularly effective in articulating the Justice's positions on various issues, without invoking a large number of cases which could bury the reader. O'Connor's policy positions and approach stand out with clarity as a result.

I found the most interesting section of the book focused on what might be termed the "O'Connor techniques." This relates to how she was able to perhaps out-Brennan Justice Brennan in exerting persuasive influence on her colleagues, especially as more GOP-nominated justices joined the Court. But the author's account of how O'Connor would draft opinions to pick up additional votes is extremely valuable. In short, this technique involved incremental "straddling" of different positions, abstaining from crafting broad constitutional rules without the potential for future doctrinal evolution, never deciding more than needed to be decided. For example, accepting some state limitations on abortion, but avoiding having to pass (until the Webster decision) on the continuing constitutionality of Roe. Her maneuverings on the church/state issue is another example that is discussed. This is the kind of "meaty" analysis one hopes to find in a judicial biography--and it is here in abundance.

Biskupic favors the argument that the Justice shifted to a more moderate position during her final terms. Only to some extent I agree, but Biskupic makes her case in an effective fashion. The chapter on Bush v. Gore is very straightforward and dispassionate--unusual given the reams of paper devoted by commentators to examining this controversial decision. The author was also able to include a final section on the death of the Chief Justice and how O'Connor, the perpetual survivor, continues to move forward. The research is impressive; many interviews are drawn upon. The narrative though over 300 pages moves along quite smoothly for the most part. Certainly, a rewarding read for anyone interested in the Court during this current period of its transition.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Brilliant Portrait of a Unique Woman, November 1, 2005

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E. H. Hayes - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sandra Day O'Connor: How the First Woman on the Supreme Court Became Its Most Influential Justice (Hardcover)

With the current focus on President's Bush's efforts to "pack" the Supreme Court with ideological conservatives, Ms. Biskupic's book is even more timely and important. "Sandra Day O'Connor-How the First Woman on the S. Ct. Became Its Most Influential Justice", is an excellent and insightful biography of a key figure on the Court today. Writing with a journalist's eye and a lawyer's anaylsis, Ms. Biskupic manages to distill complex legal cases into comprehensible events. This is no small feat and it makes the O'Connor biography accessible to everyone interested in the vital issues we confront today (abortion, affirmative action, sexual discrimination, death penalty etc).
This biography provides an insider's pespective on how justices are chosen, vetted, and confirmed within the political process. We learn insights about Justice O'Connor's friendship with the late Chief Justice Rehnquist and her lobbying efforts on his behalf when he was first nominated to the bench. We see the deftness with which Justice O'Connor handled her own successsful confirmation process. Yet the most exiciting part of Ms. Biskupic's book is Justice O'Connor's rise to becoming one of the most influential members of the Court; it reads almost like a great novel (notwithstanding the 1000 scholarly and informative footnotes) with pace, excitement and surprise.
The books underscores the point that Justices can be shaped by the Coourt as well as shape its case law.
"Sandra Day O'Connor" is a must read for anyone interested in the last quarter century of American and Supreme Court history.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Impressive, Engrossing Biography, June 30, 2006

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vabookreader "Jeff Hotz" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sandra Day O'Connor: How the First Woman on the Supreme Court Became Its Most Influential Justice (Hardcover)

Joan Biskupic's biography _Sandra Day O'Connor: How the First Woman on the Supreme Court Became Its Most Influential Justice_ provides a compelling picture of the first woman Supreme Court justice and of the inner workings of the Supreme Court through four presidential administrations. Biskupic combines assiduous research with a writing style that makes the intricacies of Supreme Court proceedings accessible and fascinating. The biography is impressive on many counts, especially in how it captures O'Connor's skilfull handling of the challenges of being the nation's first female Supreme Court Justice. Throughout, Biskupic's stance is balanced, outlining the strengths of O'Connor's jurisprudence while acknowleding O'Connor's critics.

While the main focus of the biography is on O'Connor's work in the Supreme Court, the early chapters offer a snapshot of O'Connor as a driven career woman, a devoted wife and mother, and an adroit politician. Biskupic shows how O'Connor's life on the family's "Lazy B." farm in Arizona was a formative influence, even though her parents consciously separated her from the farm in order to give her more educational opportunities at a private school in in El Paso. Her father's independence and opposition to the expansion of federal powers in Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal, and O'Connor's experiences as a trial lawyer, an Arizona state senator, and a judge on the Arizona Court of Appeals shaped an approach to law based on pragmatic, narrow definitions as opposed to overarching theoretical positions in rulings. As Biskupic shows, O'Connor's Arizonan, Western roots are manifest in her respect for the Tenth Amendment, which gives to states those powers not directly assigned to the federal government.

Biskupic is sensitive in tracing O'Connor's role as a trailblazer (though, often, in a purposefully understated way), and the biography shows how attitudes toward women have evolved from the 1950s to the present. O'Connor, for instance, despite graduating in the top 10% at Stanford University's Law school in 1952 and having been a member of the Stanford Law Review, received no offers at firms. One prestigious firm, Gibson, Dunn offered her a legal secretary position, which she declined. In an irony reflective of social changes, when Fred Smith, Ronald Reagan's White House Counsel and a former lawyer with Gibson, Dunn, and Grutcher, interviewed O'Connor in 1981 for the Supreme Court vacancy, O'Connor asked him if it was an interview for "a secretarial position." Biskupic begins her book with this effective anecdote, and the biography throughout reveals how O'Connor astutely negotiated gender prejudice in public life.

Biskupic also offers a detailed picture of O'Connor's important votes related to Roe v. Wade, affirmative action, capital punishment, and Bush v. Gore as she became increasingly the fifth tie-breaking in a deadlocked court. Biskupic chronicles O'Connor's evolution as a jurist, arguing that her role as a centrist often made her a baramoter of where the nation as a whole stood. Biskupic points out that O'Connor's legislative background as an Arizona State Senator--as a person who ran for office and thus who was directly accountable to the electorate--gave her a unique perspective in the Supreme Court with its life-time appointees.

Chapter 15, "Scalia v. O'Connor," highlights O'Connor's judicial pragmatism and minimalist interpretations, offering a contrast with Scalia's philosophically driven understanding of law on originalist grounds. In this chapter, Biskupic addresses critiques of O'Connor's decisions and legal reasoning from both the right and left. This chapter is fair in its discussion and highly informative about different approaches to law and about the role of the Supreme Court, in general.

An anecdote at the end of the book reveals O'Connor's personal style. In an interview with Biskupic, Clarence Thomas recalled O'Connor's congeniality and even the subtle impact this had on the court . O'Connor had attempted for a number of years to convince the other justices to eat lunch together after listening to cases. Although Thomas and other justices initially resisted, prefering to work on cases, he and others later relented. Thomas remarks, "Now, you have a group of people who really enjoy other's company." Biskupic argues that such tact helped lead to O'Connor's ascendant role in the court.

Biskupic's biography chronicles O'Connor's own life and provides a view of the day-to-day dynamics of the Supreme Court, including shifts in the court with retirements and the investitures of new justices. The biography, while telling many important stories affecting American law and life, maintains a clear argument of O'Connor's unmistakable influence.