Sandra Day O'ConnorPerhaps no other jurist could have come to the Supreme Court with greater expectations. When President Ronald Reagan appointed Sandra Day O'Connor in 1981 as the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court, he did so to fulfill a campaign promise. O'Connor's nomination was quick to draw criticism from politicians on the left and right. Conservatives pointed to her lack of federal judicial experience and claimed she had no constitutional knowledge. They considered her a useless candidacy and were suspicious of her stance on abortion. Liberals, on the other hand, could not deny their satisfaction at seeing a woman serve on the high court, but they were disappointed in O'Connor's apparent lack of strong support for feminist issues. Over time, however, O'Connor was able to respond to all of these criticisms. O'Connor emerged from the shadow of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and the Court's conservative bloc with her own brand of pragmatic, centrist conservatism. Even liberals who called her a "traitor" in her early years for undermining abortion rights now appreciate her efforts to maintain the "pro-choice" message of Roe v. Wade in 1973. O'Connor's success should come as no surprise. . From her rural childhood to her professional rise in a male-dominated profession, O'Connor often resorted to practical solutions while working within the system. This made her more prominent on the Supreme Court.Sandra Day O'Connor was born on March 26, 1930, in El Paso, Texas. His parents, Harry and Ada Mae, owned the Lazy-B-Cattle Ranch in southeastern Arizona, where O'Connor grew up. O'Connor experienced a difficult life on the ranch in his early years. The ranch itself did not receive electricity or ru...... middle of paper ...... part of the conservative faction of the Court. The public often associates him with Rehnquist because they share common roots and values. However, after a few terms, O'Connor established his own unique position on the Court. Although she generally sided with conservatives, O'Connor frequently drafted an agreement intended to restrict the scope of majority opinion. To this day, O'Connor's basic legal philosophy remains difficult to define. She approaches each case with individual treatment and always seeks to arrive at a practical conclusion. His moderation contributed to his role as a centrist coalition builder, which consequently strengthened his influence on the Court.Work Citedhttp://www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/legal_entity/102/http://www. lucidcafe. com/library/96mar/oconnor.html http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/justices/oconnor.bio.html