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Dec. 19 (UPI) -- President Joe Biden and Chief Justice John Roberts remembered Sandra Day O'Connor as a trailblazer during a Tuesday funeral service for the first female Supreme Court justice at the Washington National Cathedral. Calling her an American pioneer, President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that O'Connor inspired millions and shattered stereotypes as the country's first woman to sit on the high court.
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"Sandra Day O'Connor, the daughter of the American West, was a pioneer in her own right, breaking down the barriers of legal and political words and the nation's consciousness," he said.
O'Connor, who died on Dec. 1 at age 93, was appointed to the Supreme Court in July 1981 by President Ronald Reagan and served until 2006.
During O'Connor's confirmation hearing in 1981, Biden, then a U.S. senator, questioned whether she would leverage her influence as a Supreme Court justice to advocate for gender equality and women's rights outside her judicial duties.
"It is your right, if it were your desire, to go out and campaign very strongly for the" Equal Rights Amendment, Biden reasoned in the hearing 42 years ago. "It is your right to go out and make speeches across the country about inequality for women, if you believed it ... You have an obligation, it seems to me, to women in this country to speak out on those issues that you are allowed to under the canons of ethics."
After three days of testimony, the Senate voted 99-0 to confirm her nomination, while O'Connor remains the only Supreme Court justice in history to receive unanimous approval from the chamber.
Biden earlier this month recalled O'Connor's confirmation as "proof that our nation can come together to move history forward."
Biden said that she lived up to the challenge throughout her career, as she helped to "empower generations of women in every part of American life, including the court itself; helping to open doors, secure freedoms and prove that a woman cannot only do anything a man can do, but many times do a heck of a lot better."
Throughout her term, she was consistently praised for her strict adherence to the law as she ruled in some of the nation's most consequential legal cases for a quarter century, including major decisions on abortion rights, criminal procedures and affirmative action.
Chief Justice John Roberts, who served with O'Connor briefly on the Supreme Court told stories about her "just get it done" attitude, especially with him during one case when he said he couldn't make up his mind.
"In nearly a quarter century on the bench, she was a strong, influential and iconic jurist," Roberts said. "Her leadership shaped the legal profession, making it obvious that judges are both women and men.
"The time that women were not on the bench seemed so far away because Justice O'Connor was so good when she was on the bench."
Her son Jay O'Connor described his mother as a "force of nature" who was equally as involved in their lives as a mother as she was on the Supreme Court.
"When she walked into a room everything was more vivid," Jay O'Connor said. "She willed things into action. People had a very hard time saying 'no' to her, except for her three sons and some of her lively colleagues on the Supreme Court.
"She drew people in, took an interest in them and made them feel special," he continued.
He said O'Connor's idea of winding down after work was often by playing three sets of tennis or 18 holes of golf.
"She brainwashed us as kids to think our turbo-charged level of family activities was normal," Jay O'Connor said, getting a laugh from the crowd. "Did we really need to go to three family parties and a square dance all in one night?"
