Absent ‘Tricky and Contingent’ Events, O’Connor Could Still Be on the Court
Sandra Day O’Connor might still be on the U.S. Supreme Court if Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist hadn’t been so optimistic.
O’Connor retired in 2005 to care for her husband, who was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. But as his dementia worsened, she was unable to keep him at home. O’Connor might have realized that retirement was unnecessary if she had waited a year to resign—and she was prepared to do that to avoid two simultaneous vacancies on the court, according to the Opinionator blog of the New York Times.
But Rehnquist had assured O’Connor that he wasn’t planning to step down, and was optimistic that he would recover from thyroid cancer. He died two months after O’Connor announced her retirement.
After Renquist’s death, John G. Roberts Jr. became an “accidental chief justice,” the Opinionator says. He had been nominated to fill O’Connor’s vacancy, but he was quickly switched to fill Rehnquist’s role.
“It’s worth revisiting these events if only as a reminder of how tricky and contingent history can be,” the Opinionator writes. “Had Chief Justice Rehnquist learned of his dire prognosis a month sooner than he did, I think there is at least a fair chance that Sandra Day O’Connor would still be on the court.”
