Justice O’Connor Continued Public Service Long After Retirement

Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s retirement from the US Supreme Court in 2006 was anything but relaxing and notable for the degree to which she stayed in the public eye.

Unlike other justices, who retire due to bad health or die in office, O’Connor, who died Friday morning at the age of 93, was in good physical and mental condition when she left the bench at the age of 75. She stepped away to be with her husband, John, in the final years of a long struggle with Alzheimer’s. He died in 2009.

Until her own Alzheimer’s diagnosis forced her out ...