The Four Female Justices of the Supreme Court

By Sophia Huellstrunk

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Biographies


Sandra Day O'Connor

Picture of Sandra Day O'connor from January 29, 2011

Sandra Day O'Connor, 1st Female Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, January 29, 2011. Library of Congress.

Sandra Day O’connor was born in El Paso, Texas, on March 26, 1930. She graduated Radford School for girls two years early, and then went to Stanford University for a bachelor degree in economics. In 19950, she was admitted to Stanford law, which she completed in 2, not 3, years, finishing 3rd in her class. O’connor then married John Jay O’connor, but despite impeccable qualifications, she had a hard time finding a job. She started working for free for a county attorney and went through developed her career through many jobs, including one in Frankfurt, until she became the assistant attorney general of Arizona. In 1969, she was elected to the Arizona State Senate to fill a vacated seat as a Republican and was elected twice, later becoming the first female majority leader of the house. Then, she worked on the Arizona Supreme Court of Appeals until 2 years later, when, in 1981, President Ronald Reagan nominated her for the Supreme Court. She was unanimously approved by the senate, making her the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court. Throughout her time on the court, she was an advocate for gender equality (for both males and females) and women’s rights, and she reaffirmed Roe V Wade. She retired in 2006 to care for her husband, who had Alzheimer’s disease, but is still an advocate for women’s rights and education around the world today.


Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Picture of Ruth Bader Ginsburg from September 15, 2010

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, September 15, 2010. Source.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was born Ruth Bader in Manhattan, New York, on March 15, 1933. Her mother worked in a garment factory and her dad was a furrier in the Great Depression. She excelled at James Madison high school, though her mother died of cancer the day before her graduation, and excelled in Cornell university, where she graduated top of her class in 1954. She then married Martin and became a Ginsburg, and had her first child in 1954. Ginsburg then enrolled in Harvard School for Law in 1956, where she was one of 9 women in a 500 student class, and faced strong gender discrimination both by peers and individuals in higher positions. However, she stayed at the top of her class, even while helping her husband, who was diagnosed with testicular cancer, and she became the first female member of the harvard law review. She then moved to New York and transferred to Columbia, finishing top of her class there in 1959. In the New York job market, she faced discrimination in the workplace despite her impeccable qualifications. She decided to join a Columbia program instead of taking a low paying job, and in 1963 she taught at Rutgers University Law School, and then at Columbia in 1972. She also directed the Women’s Right Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, where she fought against gender discrimination. She was appointed to the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in 1980. Then, in 1993, she was appointed to the Supreme Court by Bill Clinton. Today, she is a slow but steady, and a very calculating judge, who is a fierce women’s rights advocate and wants equal gender rights.


Sonja Sotomayor

Picture of Sonia Sotomayor from August 21, 2009

Sonia Sotomayor, U.S. Supreme Court justice, August 21, 2009. Source.

Sonia Sotomayor was born in the Bronx on June 25, 1945 to native Puerto Ricans. Her father worked in manual labor and mother was a nurse. She excelled in Cardinal High School, graduating as Valedictorian in 1972, and then got a scholarship to Princeton University, where she graduated 1976 with summa cum laude with a Bachelor’s degree in history. Sotomayor then went to Yale and graduated in 1979, and was immediately hired as assistant district attorney, where she established herself as a tough prosecutor. Later in her career, on November 27, 1991, the George H.W Bush administration appointed her to the United States District Court for the Southern State of New York. On June 25, 1997, Bill Clinton nominated and promoted her to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Finally, on May 26, 2009, she was nominated by President Barack Obama to the Supreme Court, making her not only the third women to ever serve on the court, but also the first latina ever to serve on the court. Sotomayor still serves today as a fiery justice who displays liberal views and isn’t scared to dissent a view she doesn’t agree with. Though she can be tough, she is known to be very down to earth.


Elena Kagan

Picture of Elena Kagan from Febuary 13, 2013

Elena Kagan, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Febuary 13, 2013. Source.

Elena Kagan was born in New York City, New York, in 1960 on April 28. She was the daughter of an elementary teacher and a housing attorney. She attended Hunter College high school and served as Student President, and in 1977, she earned acceptance to Princeton University, majoring in history, and graduated cumma sum laude in 1981. Later, she went to Oxford, England, to attend Worcester college, where she got a masters in philosophy in 1983. She next attended Harvard Law school, and became supervising editor of the Harvard Law Review. Kagan graduated magna cum laude in 1986. After education, Kagan clerked for lawyers, including the influential Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, and eventually returned to academia as a professor at the University of Chicago Law School. She eventually left under the request of Bill Clinton for her to serve as his associate counsel, where she was promoted several times to become the director of the Domestic Policy Counsel in the Clinton administration. Following Clinton’s presidency, she went back to academia and eventually became a professor at Harvard Law School, and then a dean of Harvard Law school just two years later (2003). When Barack Obama was elected, he appointed her as the first female solicitor general, and she was confirmed in 2009. The following year, Obama nominated her to the Supreme Court, beginning her career as a judge in the highest court of the land. She still serves today, and is known as the judge who’s most in touch with pop culture and technology. She reaffirmed the affordable care act and voted for same sex marriage, and is the fourth woman to ever have served on the Supreme Court.