In a politically polarized country, the civic education that Mom has been promoting is an essential tool to move the country forward by teaching students to find common ground, not to simply score political points but to keep government – federal, state and local – in a constant search to serve the common good. Of all her accomplishments, Justice O’Connor considers iCivics to be her most important work and greatest legacy.
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Each year, iCivics serves up to 145,000 teachers and nine million students free of charge, which equates to the majority of our nation’s middle and high school students. Since then, iCivics has become the nation’s premier nonprofit provider of and advocate for high quality, nonpartisan, engaging civic education. That's why mom focused on civics education She founded iCivics to ensure that all young Americans have the knowledge and will to participate in our unique experiment in self-governance.
After retiring from the Supreme Court, Mom was presciently concerned about the lack of understanding about our system of government, and the disengagement and discord that inevitably follows. That made it harder for those same colleagues to treat her, and each other, poorly on the Senate floor. In the Arizona Senate, she was legendary for hosting potluck parties at our home, with Dad pouring the favorite drinks of her colleagues, and everyone dancing to country western music. She always seemed able to find the common ground in a divided country, whether during her years in the Arizona Legislature or navigating complicated issues that came before the justices at the highest court in the land. There’s a thread that has run through our mother’s life. Sandra Day O'Connor had a knack for finding common ground with others. Many years later, while speaking during the law firm’s 100th anniversary, Mom said, “All is forgiven.” Attorney General William French Smith – a Gibson, Dunn partner – who recommended her for the Supreme Court. When Mom graduated from Stanford Law School, she applied for a position as a lawyer with the firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, only to be told she might find employment as a legal secretary – if she could type fast enough. More: How Sandra Day O'Connor met her destiny on a Lake Powell houseboat They may have had distinct philosophies of jurisprudence, but after Justice Ginsburg joined Mom on the bench they were bound together by their shared experiences as women pioneers.
The two women being honored came from very different backgrounds – the Lazy B Ranch along the Arizona-New Mexico border and Brooklyn, New York Republican Majority Leader in the Arizona Senate and co-founder of the Women’s Rights Project at the ACLU. Sandra Day O'Connor and her husband, John Jay O'Connor III, when Sandra Day O'Connor was nominated to the Supreme Court in 1981.