The court says she died in Phoenix on Friday, of complications related to advanced dementia and a respiratory illness.
In 2018, she announced that she had been diagnosed with “the beginning stages of dementia, probably Alzheimer’s disease.” Her husband, John O’Connor, died of complications of Alzheimer’s in 2009.
O’Connor’s nomination in 1981 by President Ronald Reagan and subsequent confirmation by the Senate ended 191 years of male exclusivity on the high court. A native of Arizona who grew up on her family’s sprawling ranch, O’Connor wasted little time building a reputation as a hard worker who wielded considerable political clout on the nine-member court.
Slightly off topic, but a supreme court joke is the main reason I hated the Barbie movie. At the end, when one of the Kens asks to be on the Supreme Court, and Barbie says not until a woman in the real world gets that level of power. Like motherfucker, if the point your movie is trying to make depends on erasing Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sandra Day O’Connor from history then maybe your message isn’t as fucking progressive as you think it is.
EDIT: I’m probably wrong, see comment below. The phrasing could be misinterpreted and I likely gave it the least charitable interpretation. The line isn’t divorced from reality but apparently I am.
I’m afraid your memory is a bit off. A Ken asks for a supreme court seat, President Barbie says “maybe one of the lower circuits”, and shortly thereafter the narrator says something like “maybe one day the Kens will enjoy all the rights that women do in the real world”. The movie certainly did not erase Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sandra Day O’Connor.
Just went back and rewatched it and you are absolutely correcct, its not what I remember at all. I saw an early run in the theatres and wonder if they changed it, but its probably just my confirmation bias after watching the whole movie feeling icky at how ham-fisted it was.
If you want an actually subversive comedy, look up ‘Josie and the Pussycats.’