Sandra Day O'Connor Brings Cowgirl Justice to Texas

Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor is sartorially known for popularizing lacey lady cravats with judicial robes, but Texans are more interested in her days in denim.
This week, the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, Texas kicks off a tribute to Justice O’Connor’s early years with “The Cowgirl Who Became a Justice,” a new exhibition timed to honor the 30th anniversary of O’Connor’s appointment to the Supreme Court.
The exhibition, which opens on October 27, will feature photographs and other artifacts on loan from the Lazy B, her family's ranch, reports The Dallas Morning News. The narrative of the exhibit was largely influenced by Justice O'Connor's memoir, Lazy B: Growing Up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest.
Justice O'Connor wasn't just a pioneer for women in law; she also blazed trails in her cowgirl days. In Lazy B, she opined, "Before I rode occasionally on the round-up, it had been an all-male domain. Changing it to accommodate a female was probably my first initiation into joining an all-men's club, something I did more than once in my life."
While Justice O'Connor retired from the Bench in 2005, she has remained active in public life. She is promoting civics education through her new website iCivics.com, and, in September, she pulled out her robes to sit by designation for a special Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals hearing at the University of Montana School of Law.
The National Cowgirl Museum inducted O'Connor into its Cowgirl Hall of Fame in 2002. "The Cowgirl Who Became a Justice" will run through March 25, 2012.
Related Resources:
- Sandra Day O'Connor Sits for an Interview at the Aspen Ideas Festival (FindLaw's Courtside)
- Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's Twenty Years on the Supreme Court (FindLaw)
- Justice Ginsburg Rights the Past at Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference (FindLaw's Supreme Court blog)
- Justice Elena Kagan Made Friends, Showed Sarcastic Side in 1st Year (FindLaw's Strategist)
- National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame (Official Website)