Sandra Day O'Connor, July, 2005, by Anonymous

From MemoryArchive

Who: Anonymous
What: Sandra Day O'Conner's Last Day in Court
When: July, 2005
Where: Washington, D.C.

I spent six weeks this past summer in Washington, D.C. doing an internship and taking two classes. One day, some of my friends decided that it would be fun to sleep outside of the Supreme Court to try and get inside to hear the verdicts for the cases. We awoke at 2:30 in the morning and headed out to wait in line. There were only three people in line ahead of us, and there were nine people total in the group that I was with. The first few hours weren't so bad; we took turns leaving and walking around. Then 8:30 a.m. hit and we had to stand the rest of the time that we were in line. It began raining at about 9:00 a.m., and around 9:30 a.m. the staff decided how many people they would be able to let into the Court. They ended up letting in 51 people. Being one of the first few inside, I was able to get a seat pretty close to the front and on the left side. It was so amazing seeing the Supreme Court Justices sitting up at the semi-circle right in front of me. I was completely awe-struck. Little did I know at the time that this would be Sandra Day O'Connor's last day in the Supreme Court. It was an incredible experience.