Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor talked with a capacity audience at the Community Church of the Verdes last week as part of the Verdes ASU Lecture Series.

O’Connor talked about her life beginning with her childhood on the Lazy B Ranch in Southeastern Arizona. However, she said little about her experiences on the high court and the audience was asked not to inquire about specific cases heard during her term, or cases that might be heard.

Her grandfather homesteaded the ranch along the Gila River within land that formed the Gadsden Purchase from Mexico. Her parents met in El Paso when her father was there to purchase cattle for the ranch.

O’Connor was born in 1930 in El Paso, Texas because her mother wanted to be attended by a physician during the birth, and that was the nearest hospital. They returned to the ranch about three weeks after she was born.

“Ranch life was kind of fun,” O’Connor said. “It was an interesting place to grow up. I enjoyed it thoroughly.”

She stayed with her grandparents in El Paso while school was in session and eventually applied to Stanford University, the only college she applied to.

“I think I decided on Stanford because it was where my father had wanted to go, but didn’t get to,” O’Connor said.

She met her husband John while in California and they were married at the Lazy B.

“We had a long and happy marriage,” she said.

She applied to Stanford Law School and was accepted where a classmate was her eventual colleague on the Supreme Court, Chief Justice of the United States William Rehnquist.

Upon graduating from law school O’Connor said she found no one interested in hiring a female attorney for their firm. She eventually landed a job with the San Mateo County District Attorney.

When her husband was drafted and sent to Germany she went along and took a job with the Quartermaster working with materials contracts.

“The job of the attorneys was to include language to make sure none of the supplies ended up behind the Iron Curtain,” O’Connor said.

When her husband was discharged from the military he took a job in Phoenix, she still found no law firm would hire her, so she started her own. She became active in Republican politics and eventually won a seat in the Arizona Legislature.

In response to a question about that legislative experience O’Connor said she had and still has concerns about the way laws are drafted. She also called the initiative process “pretty scary.”

“I think when you can discuss an issue in committee and work on it together you get better results,” O’Connor said.

O’Connor somewhat believes her appointment to the Supreme Court was a bit of President Ronald Reagan wanting to keep a campaign promise to women.

She was sitting on the bench of the federal appeals court in Phoenix when she received a phone call at her office. It was the White House calling with President Reagan on the other end.

“He said to me, ‘I’d like to announce your nomination tomorrow for the U.S. Supreme Court, is that all right with you?’” O’Connor said.

“I told him, ‘Yes, Mr. President.’”

Her nomination was ratified by the Senate with a vote of 99-0. She said the one senator who was not present for the vote later told her he would have voted “yes” if he had been present.

She served on the court from 1981 until retiring in 2006.

O’Connor said she believes the justices work very hard and try to do their very best. She said she sees no evidence on the court of a pervasive intrusion by partisan politics the media often portrays.

She closed on a light note when an audience member asked “if there were one thing about the Supreme Court you could change, what would that be?”

“Oh, that’s a terrible question,” O’Connor said. Then after a pause she looked at the questioner and replied, “Really…just one?”