The Dwight D. Eisenhower Service to Democracy Award
The Service to Democracy Award is presented to national leaders who exemplify President Eisenhower's founding principle when he established The American Assembly: "to reconcile divergent views in order to accomplish a common purpose."
2004
Sandra Day O'Connor
Associate Supreme Court Justice
Robert O. Anderson, CEO, Atlantic Richfield Company and Justice Sandra Day O’Connor receive The American Assembly’s Service to Democracy Award from David Rockefeller in 1982.
Sandra Day O'Connor was the first female member of the Supreme Court of the United States. She served as an Associate Justice from 1981 until her retirement from the Court in 2006. O'Connor was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981. In the latter years of her tenure, she was regarded as having the swing opinion in many cases.
Prior to O'Connor's appointment to the Court, she was an elected official and judge in Arizona. On July 1, 2005, she announced her intention to retire effective upon the confirmation of a successor. President George W. Bush first unsuccessfully nominated Harriet Miers to replace O'Connor, then nominated Justice Samuel Alito to take her seat in October 2005, and he joined the Court on January 31, 2006.
O'Connor is Chancellor of The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, and serves on the board of trustees of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
