On the question of how closely her votes actually reflected American public opinion, we find that during her quarter-century on the Supreme Court, Justice O’Connor’s votes were consistent with public opinion 64 percent of the time, and inconsistent the remaining 36 percent of the time. As Figure 1 shows, compared to the fourteen other justices who served during her Court tenure, O’Connor ranked near the top in terms of representing public attitudes. Only Justices White and Rehnquist more often agreed with poll majorities—at 77 percent and 67 percent, respectively.

By groups of justices, O’Connor’s votes were more often consistent with the polls than the average of the five male Democrats who served during her tenure, by a margin of 64 percent to 54 percent. O’Connor was also more often consistent with the polls than the average Republican male justice, by a margin of 64 percent to 55 percent. She much more often agreed with the polls than did the Court’s only other woman justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, by a margin of 64 percent to 48 percent.

In her frequent agreement with American public majorities, O’Connor was also very consistent over time. During the first half of her tenure she voted consistently with public opinion 65 percent of the time, compared to a 63 percent figure thereafter. Across major issue areas she typically agreed with public opinion, most often in crime and death penalty disputes, in which her votes were consistent with the polls 84 percent of the time (see Figure 2). Her votes on gender-related issues, including abortion, agreed with public opinion nearly as often (72 percent of the time). Even in Bill of Rights and federalism cases, she voted consistently with the polls nearly half the time—this despite First Amendment disputes (free speech, religion, assembly, and media) being traditionally the single area in which most Supreme Court decisions are inconsistent with the polls. (From the 1930s until 2005, only about a quarter of these decisions agreed with public majorities.)

Justice O’Connor’s historical legacy is closely bound to her being the Court’s first woman justice. Perhaps surprisingly, she did not more often represent the attitudes of American woman than those of men. Overall, 61 percent of O’Connor’s votes agreed with the attitudes of American women, compared to a 68 percent figure for men.  

However, she did represent American women’s attitudes better than did male Democratic justices, male Republican justices, and the one Democratic woman justice to date. Justice O’Connor’s 61 percent figure for representing women compares to a 57 percent figure for the five Democrat male justices (Brennan, Marshall, White, Powell, and Breyer), 55 percent for the eight Republican male justices (Burger, Rehnquist, Blackmun, Stevens, Scalia, Kennedy, Souter, and Thomas), and 51 percent for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. (These differences were not due to the years the justices served; Justice O’Connor was more consistent with the polls than any justice except White and Rehnquist, even controlling for years in common).

With attitudes of American men, O’Connor compiled a 68 percent rate of agreement. By comparison, the votes of the Democratic male justices agreed with men 55 percent of the time, and those of the Republican male justices 57 percent of the time. Justice Ginsburg’s votes agreed with men 46 percent of the time. Overall, then, Justice O’Connor did better than any other type of justices at representing the attitudes of both American women and men.