Klobuchar led bipartisan effort to place statues of Justices O’Connor and Ginsburg on Capitol grounds
WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) released the statement below on the passing of former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. In 2022, Klobuchar’s bipartisan legislation to honor U.S. Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg with statues on U.S. Capitol grounds was signed into law.
“Sandra Day O’Connor was a trailblazer.
She rose from an Arizona cattle ranch to the highest court in the land. It was anything but easy. Even after graduating in the top of her law school class, she had a hard time finding work as a female attorney in the 1950s, but she never gave up. She took an unpaid job as a deputy county attorney in California just to prove herself. Through the rest of her career, she did that and more.
As the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court after being appointed by President Reagan, Justice O’Connor opened doors for women at a time when so many tried to keep them shut. For 24 years Justice O’Connor’s pragmatism and common sense approach to the law made her one of the Supreme Court’s most influential jurists.
Even after leaving the bench, her commitment to our nation never wavered. She founded a nonprofit dedicated to civic education to share her love of democracy with the next generation. To this day, the Sandra Day O’Connor Institute is transforming today’s students into tomorrow’s civic leaders.
Hers is a life worth celebrating. That’s why I led bipartisan legislation to honor Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg with statues on the Capitol grounds so the legacies of these groundbreaking women will be commemorated forever in the heart of our democracy. Justice O’Connor’s son Scott and his wife Joanie joined me in front of the Capitol to mark the bill’s passage and celebrate these remarkable women.
Sandra Day O’Connor showed that anything and everything is possible in the United States of America. May her tenacity continue to inspire generations to come.
My prayers are with her family, her friends, and everyone across our nation mourning her loss today.”
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