Sandra Day O’Connor was the first woman to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court. Justice O’Connor went to Stanford for her undergraduate and law degrees. She served as assistant attorney general, state senator and superior court judge in Arizona before being raised to the Arizona Court of Appeals in 1979. President Ronald Reagan nominated Justice O’Connor to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1981. The Senate confirmed her 99-0. She was known as a moderate conservative.

Sonia Sotomayor has been a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit since 1998. Before joining the appeals court, she served as a United States District Court judge for the Southern District of New York. In May 2009, President Obama nominated Judge Sotomayor to replace Justice David H. Souter, who retired from the Supreme Court in June.

Rosa Parks