Biden eulogizes Sandra Day O’Connor as a ‘pioneer’

President Joe Biden praised the late former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor at her funeral on Tuesday and specifically lauded her for seeking to set aside political differences and working to advance equality for all people.

O’Connor, the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court, died on Dec. 1 at 93.

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Tuesday’s funeral took place at the Washington National Cathedral. Jay O’Connor, one of the late justice’s three sons, eulogized his mother in addition to the president and Evan Thomas, an O’Connor biographer.

O’Connor lay in repose on Monday at the Supreme Court, and Justice Sonia Sotomayor described the late justice as a “life role model” during a ceremony early that morning.

Biden opened his remarks Tuesday by expressing his love for O’Connor “on behalf of a truly grateful nation.”

President Ronald Reagan appointed O’Connor to serve on the nation’s highest court in 1981, and the president reminisced about her confirmation process.

Biden, who at the time served as the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, helped oversee her confirmation hearing, during which he specifically questioned her on whether she would use her post to lobby for a constitutional amendment granting women equal rights under the law.

O’Connor told then-Sen. Biden that doing so would be “inappropriate,” but Biden urged her not to “wall [herself] off.”

“It is your right, if it were your desire, to go out and campaign very strongly for the ERA. It is your right to go out and make speeches across the country about inequality for women, if you believed it,” he stated. “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.”

Biden praised O’Connor on Tuesday as a “pioneer in her own right,” responsible for “breaking down barriers, legal and political,” and opening up doors for women.

“Equal justice under law is the noblest aspiration of humankind, the aspiration of Sandra Day O’Connor, one that she pursued her whole life,” he continued. “One need not agree with all of her principles in order to recognize they were held deeply.”

The president specifically thanked O’Connor for valuing civility among all people, regardless of political ideals.

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“Beyond the bench, Justice O’Connor valued the civic life of the nation and our schools and our community centers and families and in our friendships. Yes, America is the land of rugged individualist adventurers and entrepreneurs, but she knew no person is an island,” Biden stated. “In the fabric of our nation, we’re all inextricably linked, and for America to thrive, America must see themselves not as enemies but as partners in the great work of deciding our collective destiny. That’s the essence of our national experience.”

You can watch Biden’s remarks in full below.