Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman on the nation's highest bench, died Friday at the age of 93, reports the AP. O'Connor passed away due to "complications related to advanced dementia" and a respiratory illness, the court said Friday, per CNN and CBS News. O'Connor, appointed to the court by then-President Ronald Reagan and sworn into her seat in 1981, was unanimously confirmed by the US Senate. O'Connor stepped down from the court in 2006 to care for her husband, John O'Connor, who had Alzheimer's disease; he died in 2009. O'Connor was replaced by Justice Samuel Alito by then-President George W. Bush.
Per CBS, O'Connor largely moved out of the public spotlight in 2018, after her dementia diagnosis, and the court's statement notes that she likely suffered from Alzheimer's. An inspiration to female lawyers and judges across the nation, O'Connor ruled from the bench as a moderate conservative, per CNN, serving as a critical swing vote on such contentious decisions as abortion rights and affirmative action. At one point, O'Connor was known "as the most powerful woman in America," per the New York Times. "She has shown time and time again that she is a true cowgirl," the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said in 2015 of the Arizona native "known for her self-reliance and independence, traits she acquired as a young woman branding cattle, driving tractors, and firing rifles," CNN notes. (More Sandra Day O'Connor stories.)
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