Supreme Court nominee Sandra Day O'Connor smiles during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 9, 1981.
Sandra Day O'Connor (right) poses for a photo on Easter in 1940 with her mother, Ada Mae Day (left), holding her brother Alan, and her sister, Ann (center).
O'Connor's 1950 Stanford University yearbook photo.
President Ronald Reagan offers a seat to nominee O'Connor as they prepare to pose for photographers in the Rose Garden of the White House, on July 16, 1981.
O'Connor is sworn in by Chief Justice Warren Burger in the Supreme Court's conference room in Washington, on Sept. 25, 1981. Her husband, John, holds two family Bibles.
The nine justices of the Supreme Court, including the newly sworn-in O'Connor, pose with President Reagan in the conference room of the Supreme Court in Washington, on Sept. 25, 1981.
O'Connor (right) and Margaret Kuhn, founder of the Gray Panthers, pose with bouquets of flowers after receiving awards at the 1982 Gimbel Awards luncheon in Philadelphia, on May 5, 1982.
O'Connor and her husband, John, visit the Great Wall of China at Badaling, north of Beijing, on Aug. 28, 1987.
Members of the Supreme Court, including O'Connor (third from left), stand behind the flag-draped coffin of former Chief Justice Warren Burger in Washington, on June 28, 1995.
O’Connor (left), Chief Justice William Rehnquist (center) and Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy break ground at a ceremony for a new section of the Supreme Court building on June 17, 2003.
O’Connor, an El Paso, Texas, native, dons a cowboy hat given to her during an event at the University of Houston Law Center on March 10, 2005.
Justices Antonin Scalia, John Paul Stevens, John Roberts, O’Connor, Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David Souter, Clarence Thomas and Stephen Breyer pose for photographers at the U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 31, 2005.
President Barack Obama presents the Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the U.S., to O’Connor during a ceremony at the White House on Aug. 12, 2009.
O’Connor (second from left) is applauded by, from left, Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, during a forum at the Newseum in Washington, on April 11, 2012, to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of O’Connor’s appointment to the Supreme Court.
O’Connor listens as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg pays tribute to O’Connor’s advocacy work on behalf of civic education, impact on female judges and justice for women and girls worldwide at the Seneca Women Global Leadership Forum at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, on April 15, 2015.