“Where Are They Now? First Female Justice Sandra Day O’Connor”

Sandra Day O’Connor

First female justice still judging, lecturing and writing

by Susannah A. Nesmith, AARP Bulletin, July 1, 2010

By some measures, retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor is working harder than she did when she was on the nation’s highest court. The law allows retired justices to continue working as judges on lower federal courts, and O’Connor has enthusiastically thrown herself into that. She travels around the country, filling in when appellate judges are on vacation or seats are vacant.

“Over the last 12 months, I have sat on more cases, heard more cases and written more opinions than I would have as an active justice on the Supreme Court,” she said during an interview with the AARP Bulletin. “It is more than a full-time job to sit on those courts.”

O’Connor, who was nominated to the high court 29 years ago this week, said her calendar is completely booked for the next two years. In addition to her court work, she accepts speaking engagements around the country to press for her two favorite causes: civic education and merit selection for judges. Last year, she also came out with her second children’s book, Finding Susie, a semi-autobiographical tale about a little girl living on a ranch and searching for the perfect pet. And she was on the Alzheimer’s Study Group, a blue-ribbon panel co-chaired by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Sen. Bob Kerrey.

She testified before the Senate last year on Alzheimer’s disease, which struck her