US Supreme Court, public pay tribute to Sandra Day O'Connor

By Andrew Chung and John Kruzel

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court and members of the public on Monday paid tribute to Sandra Day O'Connor, the court's first female justice, who died on Dec. 1 at age 93.

O'Connor's body lay in repose inside the court's Great Hall during a private ceremony attended by all nine current justices before the public was invited to pay their respects starting at 10:30 a.m. (1530 GMT).

O'Connor, a centrist on the court who was appointed by Republican President Ronald Reagan in 1981, served until her retirement in 2006.

The current justices and retired Justice Anthony Kennedy, some of whom were joined by spouses, stood solemnly in a row facing O'Connor's American flag-draped casket and across the Great Hall from the late justice's family during the ceremony. Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff also visited the court to pay their respects.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor recalled O'Connor's "extraordinary understanding of the American people, just as she had an extraordinary understanding of this court's role and its limits."

"The nation was well served by the steady hand and intellect of a justice who never lost sight of how the law affected ordinary people," said Sotomayor, who described O'Connor as "my life role model."

Justice Clarence Thomas, who was joined at the ceremony by his wife Virginia "Ginni" Thomas, at one point appeared to wipe away tears. Thomas and O'Connor sat on the bench together for more than 14 years.

O'Connor died in Phoenix, Arizona, of complications related to advanced dementia and a respiratory illness. She had been diagnosed with dementia and announced in October 2018 that she was withdrawing from public life.

Although a conservative, she became the court's ideological center. Her knack for building consensus helped her control decisions on the most contentious issues of her era.

She created a critical alliance in 1992 to affirm the central holding in Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that made abortion legal nationwide. She also was a crucial vote in 2003 to uphold campus affirmative action policies that were used to increase the number of underrepresented minority students at American colleges.

The Supreme Court, which now has a 6-3 conservative majority, overturned the landmark Roe ruling in 2022, and in June struck down race-conscious admissions programs in higher education, effectively prohibiting affirmative action.

Monday's tribute included Supreme Court police officers serving on the casket team, with honorary pallbearers designated by the family. The casket was placed on the Lincoln Catafalque, a pine board platform covered in black cloth that was used to support President Abraham Lincoln's coffin when he lay in state in the Capitol's Rotunda after his assassination in 1865.

Harris in a statement recalled O'Connor as "a champion of civics education" who had "helped countless young Americans better understand the nature and importance of our democracy."

A private funeral will be held for O'Connor at the Washington National Cathedral on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Andy Sullivan, Jonathan Oatis and Mark Porter)