Sandra Day O'Connor (born March 26, 1930) is a retired Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, serving from her appointment in 1981 by Ronald Reagan to 2006. She is the first woman to serve on the Court. Prior to O'Connor's tenure on the Court, she was an elected official and judge in Arizona serving as the first female Majority Leader of a state senate as the Republican leader in the Arizona Senate. Upon her nomination to the Court, O'Connor was confirmed unanimously by the Senate.
In the 1990 and 1995 Missouri v. Jenkins rulings, O'Connor voted with the majority that district courts had no authority to require the state of Missouri to increase school funding in order to counteract racial inequality. In the 1991 Freeman v. Pitts case, O'Connor joined a concurring opinion in a plurality, agreeing that a school district that had formerly been under judicial review for racial segregation could be freed of this review, even though not all desegregation targets had been met. Law professor Herman Schwartz criticized these rulings, writing that in both cases "both the fact and effects of segregation were still present." In 1987's McCleskey v. Kemp, O'Connor joined a 5-4 majority that voted to uphold the death penalty for an African American man, Warren McCleskey, convicted of killing a white police officer, despite statistical evidence that black defendants were more likely to receive the death penalty than others both in Georgia and in the U.S. as a whole. In 1996's Shaw v. Hunt and Shaw v. Reno, O'Connor joined a Rehnquist opinion, following an earlier precedent from an opinion she authored in 1993, in which the Court struck down an electoral districting plan designed to facilitate the election of two black representatives out of twelve from North Carolina, a state that had not had any black representative since Reconstruction, despite being approximately 20% black--the Court held that the districts were unacceptably gerrymandered and O'Connor called the odd shape of the district in question, North Carolina's 12th, "bizarre". Law Professor Herman Schwartz called O'Connor "the Court's leader in its assault on racially oriented affirmative action," although she joined with the Court in upholding the constitutionality of race-based admissions to universities. In late 2008, O'Connor said she believed racial affirmative action should continue to help heal the inequalities created by racial discrimination. She stressed this would not be a cure-all but rather a bandage and that society has to do much more to correct our racial imbalance. In 2003 Justice O'Connor authored a majority Supreme Court opinion (Grutter v. Bollinger) saying racial affirmative action wouldn't be constitutional permanently but long enough to correct past discrimination - an approximation limit of around 25 years, or until 2028.

Q: What was the most famous case involving race?
A: In 1987's McCleskey v. Kemp, O'Connor joined a 5-4 majority that voted to uphold the death penalty for an African American man, Warren McCleskey,

Q: Did she support increasing school funding?
A: O'Connor joined a concurring opinion in a plurality, agreeing
What else is she known for?
1987's McCleskey v. Kemp, O'Connor joined a 5-4 majority that voted to uphold the death penalty for an African American man, O'Connor joined a concurring opinion in a plurality, agreeing that a school district that had formerly been under judicial review for racial segregation could be freed of this review, In 1987's McCleskey v. Kemp, O'Connor joined a 5-4 majority that voted to uphold the death penalty for an African American man, Warren McCleskey, In 1996's Shaw v. Hunt and Shaw v. Reno, O'Connor joined a Rehnquist opinion, In 1987's McCleskey v. Kemp, O'Connor joined a 5-4 majority that voted to uphold the death penalty for an African American man, Warren McCleskey,
In 1987's McCleskey v. Kemp, O'Connor joined a 5-4 majority that voted to uphold the death penalty for an African American man, Warren McCleskey,