First: Sandra Day O'Connor

by Evan Thomas

She had long appreciated the simple truth that if people get to know each other in a relaxed setting, they are more likely to find common ground.

She would walk away from fights she deemed unnecessary, while never shying away from the important ones. She knew when to tease, when to flatter, and when to punch the bully in the nose.

What moved her was a powerful sense of civic duty. If O’Connor had an overarching faith, a kind of secular religion beyond her belief in God, it was the duty to serve one’s community. She was a relentless apostle for service.

A decade late, Justice O’Connor presided over one of the first marriages of a gay couple at the Supreme Court (the ceremony was held in the Lawyers’ Lounge). One of the couple, Jeff Trammel, thanked her for her vote in Lawrence, as he put it, “for making sure my partner and I are no longer felons in our country.” Eyes twinkling, she smiled.

One of the justice’s favorite movies was Legally Blonde, the 2001 film about a sorority queen who turns stuffy Harvard Law School on its head. In the bustling, bossy Reese Witherspoon character there was a touch of Sandra Day O’Connor.